CHICAGO — Opponents of Washington’s deepening attacks against Cuba got a tremendous response from thousands of people lining the route of the annual Puerto Rican People’s Parade here June 13. Two dozen people took part in a special Cuba solidarity contingent, chanting “Cuba sí, bloqueo no!” and “U.S. hands off Cuba!” Many onlookers cheered and waved, calling back, “No war!”
Marchers from the Chicago Cuba Coalition, Levántate por Cuba, the Socialist Workers Party and others carried placards, Cuban flags and banners. Members of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, which helped organize the parade, carried a banner with pictures of Cuban leader Raúl Castro, who faces frame-up charges filed by Washington, and Oscar López, a Puerto Rican independence fighter who spent 36 years in U.S. prisons because of his steadfast opposition to U.S. colonial rule.
“Every opportunity to bring attention to Cuba is important,” Stacy Alikakos said, telling the Militant why she joined the contingent. Alikakos is a student adviser at Northeastern Illinois University who visited Cuba on a May Day delegation. “There’s a long history of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean.”
“What the U.S. armed forces and government are threatening to do against Cuba, to attack 11 million workers there, is unacceptable,” Moises Cruz, a retired government worker who is from Puerto Rico and has lived in Chicago for decades, said. “That’s why I wanted to come today. It was good that lots of people saw us. My first action in defense of Cuba was six months ago, and I’m still learning.”