MONTREAL — The Feb. 1 Militant Labour Forum here featured a panel, “Defend Cuba’s socialist revolution against the war of Washington and its allies: Remove Cuba from the list of countries that ‘support terrorism.’” Panelists included Michel Prairie from the Communist League; Idrisse Diallo, a medical doctor originally from Guinea; and Sean O’Donoghue, secretary of the Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Roundtable.
Katy LeRougetel, one of two Communist League candidates here in the coming federal elections in Canada, chaired the meeting. Over 20 people attended.
CL leader Prairie pointed to the mobilization of a half million people in Cuba Dec. 20 demanding the U.S. remove Cuba from its list of countries supporting terrorism and end its punishing economic embargo. It showed the determination of the Cuban people to defend their socialist revolution.
The U.S. government has maintained the embargo against Cuba since 1960, with devastating consequences for the Cuban people. Cuba is shut off from crucial food, health and industrial necessities, which have led to widespread power outages. Being on the list of “countries that support terrorism” means increased restrictions on bank loans and commercial transactions.
“Under the leadership of Fidel Castro, the workers and peasants of Cuba established their own revolutionary government in 1959, taking control of their economy and transforming their conditions of life — carrying out the first socialist revolution in the Americas and building a revolutionary leadership not seen since the early years of the 1917 Russian Revolution,” Prairie said.
“It’s this example that Washington and its imperialist allies, including Canada, seek to obliterate. The biggest challenge the Cuban Revolution faces today is the fact there have been no lasting revolutions since,” he said. “The biggest contribution we can make is to carry out a socialist revolution in Canada. For that, the example and defense of the Cuban Revolution is crucial.
“The Communist League is working to build a party here that can lead working people to follow the example of the Cuban Revolution.”
Diallo quoted Fidel Castro’s speech at the opening of the “Victory of Playa Girón” school of medicine in Havana in October 1962. “Of course, today we can send 50 doctors to Algeria. In eight or 10 years we don’t know how many, and we will be able to help our brother peoples,” Castro said. “Because each year more students will attend medical school.”
Diallo said he “had been deeply moved by reading the French edition of Red Zone” by Cuban journalist Enrique Ubieta. It describes how Cuba’s volunteer doctors and nurses participated in the fight against Ebola in Africa 2014-15.
He quoted from an October 2014 statement by Castro entitled “The heroes of our time,” explaining Cuba’s “army of white coats” would have a place of honor in history. Cuba sent 256 doctors and nurses to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea — the three countries hit hardest by the deadly epidemic.
Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Roundtable Secretary O’Donoghue described, and encouraged forum participants to join in, the group’s activities to build friendship with Cuba. These include monthly pickets to “end the U.S. blockade of Cuba” and raising funds and material aid to send to Cuba. Several people signed to get regular emails on the group’s activities.
During the discussion period one participant, born in Burkina Faso, spoke of the close relations between the revolutionary government of Thomas Sankara that held power in Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987 and the Cuban Revolution. “I was interested to find out about the connections between Cuba and Burkina Faso, including their call for cancelling the debt to the imperialist countries,” Anta Djibo, originally from the Ivory Coast, told the Militant after the forum. She got a copy of Red Zone to learn more about Cuba’s record of solidarity around the world.