The Ambassador’s Visit, the Brookline Resolution, & the Upcoming Boston City Council Public Hearing

Following up a meeting with friends of Cuba in Miami last month, Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. Lianys Torres Rivera paid a visit to the Boston area at the end of June to meet with supporters working to normalize US-Cuba relations. July26.org and others had just completed a special June 14th program on “60 Years of Resistance – Perspectives on the U.S. Blockade of Cuba” with scholar and solidarity activist Helen Yaffe, the finale to her virtual spring tour across the U.S.  The timing was fortuitous and reinforced the significance of the recent passage of Brookline’s Town Meeting Resolution calling for an End to the Embargo and a Boston City Council resolution well on its way. Among her activities, the Ambassador participated in a forum for metro-area friends and activist supporters, met with the three primary groups doing Cuba support work locally, and attended a special meet and greet gathering in Brookline.

Click to enlarge. (clockwise from upper left) At the dinner and meeting with July26.org – (l to r) Second Secretary Yuliette Tain Domínguez, Ambassador Torres Rivera, Judy Freiwirth, Sussen Gazal, Yoav Elinevsky, Marilyn Frankenstein, Peter Miller, Bob Mulcahy, Nalda Vigezzi (missing Diane Stradling, Susan Mirsky); from the Brookline Meet and Greet, Tim Rupprecht, State Representative Tommy Vitolo, the Ambassador and Second Secretary, Sarah Miller; panel at the University Lutheran Church activist/supporter forum, Merri Ansara, the Ambassador and Second Secretary, Nalda Vigezzi, participants/audience during Q&A, Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara at the microphone (photo credits include Sussen Gazal, Bob Mulcahy).

Approximately 60 participated in the special forum on June 29 at the University Lutheran Church in Harvard Square, organized by Massachusetts Peace Action, Democratic Socialists of America/Boston, and the Boston-Cuba Solidarity Coalition. The event was preceded by a dinner and meeting with July26.org. The Ambassador graciously accepted a special copy of the Brookline resolution in honor of her visit at the gathering there the next day. A public hearing on the Boston resolution is scheduled for July 11.

Program video on YouTube and Facebook —
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60 Years of Resistance:
Perspectives on the U.S. Blockade of Cuba
Tuesday, June 14, 7:00-8:30 EDT
Register at BDSA.us/Cuba

A program with Helen Yaffe, professor of economic and social history at the University of Glasgow and leading spokesperson for the Cuba Solidarity movement, and Daniel Montero, major team member of Belly of the Beast and its award-winning “War on Cuba” series.

Join us for a virtual conversation to learn:
• How Cuba has resisted an economic war waged by the U.S. for over 60 years.
• How the Blockade effects Cuba’s work on climate change and Covid-19.
• What everyday people can do to end the U.S. Embargo.

Presented by the Boston-Cuba Solidarity Coalition and Boston DSA
Cosponsors: Mass Peace Action, Brookline PAX & the First Baptist Church in JP
program flyer

On May Day and More
A special resource list for this program is here.

Click to enlarge; download flyer here.

The anti-Cuban bias of U.S. mainstream media has been documented throughout this website’s pages. Posted. We publish this related letter to the Boston Globe by July 26^th member Calla Walsh to demonstrate our concerns and encourage their further expression. For other examples see the page on “July26.org Member Letters to the Boston Globe and Elsewhere.”

American hypocrisy is glaring

Published in Opinion, p.8 in the print edition and online with the above photo from a previous Marathon by Allison Dinner/NYT and quote: “Runners from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon, the race organizers said on Wednesday, April 6.” Text edited out in red.

The letter drew 39 comments. Note, too, the March Globe article on the attention Calla’s social media comments were receiving­ at www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/22/metro/cambridge-high-schoolers-homework-assignment-list-positive-effects-imperialism-goes-viral/ —

When I saw that the Boston Athletic Association is banning Russian athletes from the Boston Marathon as punishment for “the invasion [of Ukraine] and subsequent atrocities wrought by Russian armed forces” (”BAA: Russia, Belarus runners out,” Sports, April 7), my first thought was: Does this mean that all American athletes are also banned from the marathon for the hundreds of invasions, war crimes, and atrocities committed by the United States throughout its existence?

Or does the B.A.A. not value the lives of Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians, Yeminis, and other recent victims of U.S.-led or funded atrocities as much as they value Ukrainian lives? There is a racist double-standard when it comes to which groups the West sees as worthy victims, and it has been evident across the Western media, with networks like the BBC broadcasting remarks such as, “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed.”

Banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from the marathon does nothing to support Ukrainians, promote diplomacy, or move the world toward peace. It only promotes Cold War xenophobia, manufactures consent for military escalation with Russia, and exposes the hypocrisy of the American war machine.

Calla Walsh
Cambridge

Webinar video here. Short video re previous May Day Brigade.
2022 Info & Application at nnoc.org/mayday-brigade-call

The 2022 International May Day Work Brigade (April 24-May 8)
Webinar to Learn More:  Wed, March 16, 7:00-8:30 pm EDT
Register at bit.ly/maydaybrigade

Click graphic to enlarge — flyer available here —
and the 15^th May Day Brigade Call from The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and its Travel Agency Amistur Cuba SA

A video of the program is available here.
Sergio Reyes on Chile from the 2019 Revolts to the 2021 Presidential Election: What’s Next?
Sunday, January 16, 6:30 pm — Join Online Here

Sergio Reyes, political prisoner in Chile and exiled in the U.S., was an organizer, activist, and performer in Boston for 30 years (e.g., from www.sreyes.org), several of them as a leading member of the July 26th Coalition. He moved back to Chile a few years ago and will give us his impressions of the profoundly democratic process happening over the past few years from the 2019 revolt to the rewriting of the Pinochet era constitution to the present presidential election.

Follow-up: Reports and Analyses
Boston Answer Coalition Rally Monday, 5:00, Park St. MBTA (more here)

Reuters, “Fact Check-Photo shows 2018 Cuba May Day march, not 2021 protests,” 14 July 2021, exposed misreporting
of “anti-government demonstration,” one of many mislabeled, misidentified photos in reporting on July 11.
What will November 15 bring?

The partial selection of posts from Walter Lippmann’s CubaNews leading up to the demonstrations being planned for Monday, November 15, in Cuba (see below) give some useful evidence of the disruptions and media war going on since the July 11 protests. Planned for the day when Cuba opens up for tourism, the new school year begins, and the IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendship Caravan lands in Havana, they illustrate the troubling failure of many of those who previously looked with a critical eye and grasped the role of U.S. government subversion as part of its embargo/blockade (El Bloqueo) regime change policies and practices.

Two pieces from this collection in particular clarify the U.S. role in instigating these disruptions: The US Army Training Circular TC18-01 on Unconventional Warfare cited and linked in the piece on “The United States government is the true organizer and promoter of the provocation mounted for November” and the recent postings from the Cuba Money Project.        Continue reading →

Oct 30: Boston Rally to End the Blockade (scene here)

Spooky Embargo graphic edited from LA US Hands Off Cuba; Lift Embargo graphic by Carlos Latuff;
July 24 Park St. rally photo by Lita Kelley here. [Click on graphics for a closer look.

The Boston-Cuba Solidarity Coalition is joining with our comrades, colleagues and allies in the Boston May Day Coalition and inviting the cosponsors of our recent Boston/IFCO Program to join us at another stand-in in support of Ending the Embargo on Saturday, October 30, from 1:00-2:00 at the Park St. MBTA station on Boston Common near the State House.

The rally is in solidarity with the growing Caravan movement calling for an End to the Blockade that is taking place across the country on the last Sunday of the month. For those not within close distance, local actions on the weekend are encouraged.

October 17: MiniCaravan to Westborough

We’ve attended Stephen Lewis’s Cuba Poster shows in the past, covered most recently at the beginning of this year at the Walpole Library with some good examples. The October 17 mini-caravan gathering in Westborough, MA, to attend the Sunday public library exhibition demonstrates how the national End the U.S. Embargo Caravan movement is expanding in its outreach and the scope of Cuba-related occasions for delivering its message.  Stephen’s overview provides a useful overview of the showings.

Program Follow-up and Resources here.
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Cuba: Confronting the U.S. Blockade and Covid-19
Wednesday, September 22^nd — 7:00 pm ET

A Virtual presentation and Q&A exchange for Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine

Aviva Chomsky — author, A History of the Cuban Revolution and co-editor, The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Gail Walker of IFCO/Pastors for Peace — A report back direct from two weeks in Cuba

A Fundraising Program for IFCO/Pastors for Peace — The Proposed Boston City Council Resolution to End the Embargo and Other Actions You Can Take

Register HERE

Sponsors: The Boston-Cuba Solidarity Coalition/July26.org and IFCO/Pastors for Peace
Cosponsors: Greater Hartford Cuba Solidarity Committee, Let Cuba Live (Maine), First Baptist Church Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts Peace Action, Peace Action Maine, Boston May Day Coalition, New Hampshire Peace Action

Program flyer here.

Also, Thursday, July 22, 7:00 ET, live, interactive conversation about urgent solidarity work with Cuba and Haiti cosponsored by July26.org (video here)

What’s Really Going on in Cuba
1:00, Boston Common, Park St. MBTA Station
(Rally photos here)

From MAPA Emergency Response page, activists hold
signs in Northampton at protest, on June 23, 2021

A rally in support of Cuba’s sovereignty amidst recent demonstrations there and U.S. responses will take place Saturday, July 24 at the Park St. MBTA station at 1:00, in solidarity with the anti-embargo/blockade caravans taking place across the country on Sunday, and Monday July 26’s anniversary of the origin of the Cuban Revolution. July 24th is also a National and International Call from Brazil to be on the streets again demanding Out Bolsonaro. The open mic program is also in solidarity with Haitian self-determination in the face of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The International Action Center, Massachusetts Peace Action and the Boston May Day Coalition are among the co-sponsors (full list here); other co-sponsors are welcome.

The Boston-Cuba July26.org Solidarity Coalition has signed on to the Massachusetts Peace Action Coalition Emergency Response to the Crisis in Cuba. This, the statement and basic analysis by Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, and other recent statements amplify the analyses and commentaries in our May 31 post preceding the overwhelming condemnation of the Embargo/Blockade by the UN General Assembly last month. These recent essays include the following, Marilyn Frankenstein, Eli “Marty” Schotz, Judy Robbins, Arnold August, Walter Lippmann contributors:

• another piece by William LeoGrande on Biden choosing between starving Cubans and votes in Florida
• Chales McKelvey on “The US unconventional war against Cuba”
• “Belly of the Beast Reports on Cuba from the Ground (July 16)”
• cubastudies.org/events-in-cuba-what-happened
• “The US Must End Its Brutal Sanctions Against Cuba, Not Intervene There” by Ben Burgis in Jacobin Magazine
• “Media Play Up Protests, Play Down Effect of US Sanctions in Cuba” by Alan MacLeod in FAIR, and especially FAIR editor Janine Jackson’s interview with James Early, “Economic Warfare [Is] Designed to Starve the Cuban People Into Rebellion.”
• “If You Grew Up With the U.S. Blockade as a Cuban, You Might Understand the Recent Protests Differently” by Manolo De Los Santos and Vijay Prashad in Counterpunch
• Arnold August on “What is Happening in Cuba”
• “How To Detect Fake News About Cuba,” from Granma, translated by Walter Lippmann for Cubanews
• “We will have to go back to the future (translation),” a nuanced analysis/joint editorial of La Tizza, “a place to think and do socialism from Cuba,” linked as part of the fuller collection on “Cuba y las protestas sociales del 11J.”
• Arnold August, The Debate going on inside the Cuba Communist Party about the July Demonstrations
• and acerbic pieces on RT, www.rt.com/usa, “Cuba’s US Affairs Director Asks If ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ Is In Order As Florida Becomes Covid-19 Hotspot” and “#SOSUSA: American Plea to International Community for Help Achieving Freedom Becomes Top Political Social Media Trend.”

Together they promote “A Vaccine Against the Virus of War Propaganda.”