Vol. 73/No. 18      May 11, 2009

VanPelt described Cuba’s revolutionary struggle against racism and its internationalist missions in Africa, joining the battles for independence from colonial rule and today providing thousands of doctors who serve in the most remote areas of the continent.

She also explained how Cuba's revolutionary government and its working people organized to withstand the economic challenges of the “Special Period” after the collapse of Cuba's trade with the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, ensuring that no school or hospital closed in spite of the deep crisis.

Perasso said the socialist candidates oppose the cuts in the public transportation system MARTA and at Grady Hospital, and defend Troy Davis, who is on death row after being framed up for killing a cop.

"Some may ask why we point to the example of Cuba,” Perasso said. “The U.S. record of aggression against Cuba is bipartisan, and it is not irrational, as some people claim. The U.S. rulers hate the example of a country organized on the basis of human solidarity. They don’t want us to see it for ourselves, and they want to choke it economically.”

Perasso called for freeing five Cuban revolutionaries known as the Cuban Five, who have been unjustly held in U.S. jails for 10 years. The five were keeping Havana informed of activities of counterrevolutionary Cubans based in Miami who have carried out armed attacks on Cuba. The U.S. government used secret evidence and "conspiracy" charges to frame the five.

Natasha Herbert, a pre-med and sociology student who arranged the program, asked, “I’ve heard that President Obama is giving money to local farmers’ markets. Do you see our country moving toward a socialist perspective?” Both socialists explained that such a transformation can only come about as the result of working people taking political power from the wealthy rulers and reorganizing society in the interests of and in solidarity with working people around the world.

Kurt Williams, a student at Morehouse College, asked, “Are you saying that socialism is good? … It was a great thing [the Cubans] did, standing up to the United States, but I think a lot of young people in Cuba want a change. Face it—this is 2009—and this world is about money. They want to live like the majority of the rest of the world.”

“Yes, socialism is a step forward for humanity," answered Perasso. "It is good that millions of Cuban working people and thousands of Cuban doctors see medical care as part of basic human solidarity and not as a way to make individual profits. It is a product of Cuba’s socialist revolution.”
 
 
Related articles:
‘Cuban Revolution is free of physical abuse or torture’
Seattle students discuss Cuban Revolution today  
 
 
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