The release of the Cuban Five and restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States
The release of the Cuban Five
The South African Communist Party welcomes the release of the remaining three of the Cuban Five who were unjustly incarcerated for 16 years in the United States of America (U.S.) since 12 September 1998; Comrades Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero who were arrested together with Fernando and René González. The Cuban Five were essentially arrested by the U.S. for fighting against terrorism directed at the destabilisation of Cuba.
The SACP celebrates with the families, friends and comrades of these great heroes of the Cuban revolution and people as a whole, and shares with all them the sheer joy of their release from the jaws of imperialism in the U.S.
The release of the Cuban Five represents a symbolic victory over imperialism which is in the state of multiple crises and is unable to rule in the old way. This was admitted by the U.S. President Barack Obama in his statement on Wednesday 17 December 2014 when he said the old way of doing things did not work, and that the U.S. could not expect different results from doing one and the same thing over and over again. He then called "...for a new approach to advancing" the U.S's "interests" and "values" in Cuba.
This is the core of the remaining problem; the government of one country, i.e. the U.S., is seeking to extent its influence and jurisdiction, and impose its will over another, Cuba, and in fact also over the rest of the world. The SACP condemns this in strongest terms possible, and calls on all revolutionaries, progressives and peace loving people across the world to intensify mobilisation and the struggle against imperialism. The Cuban people and many in solidarity the world over have shown the way!
As President Raul Castro Ruz said on Wednesday 17 December 2014 announcing the release of the remaining Cuban Five and the restoration of diplomatic relations with the U.S., the heroic people of Cuba have demonstrated against great dangers, attacks, hardships and sacrifices that they are, and will remain, true to the ideals of independence and social justice. The release of all the Cuban Five followed years of consistent mobilisation in Cuba and across the world, including in South Africa. As acknowledged by President Castro who thanked all the people involved, this consistent mobilisation was carried out by "committees, groups of solidarity, governments, parliaments, organisations, institutions and personalities". The SACP is proud to have been part of this just movement!
The SACP further wishes to thank all South Africans who tirelessly took part in this struggle through our own Party organisation and, but by no means exclusively, the Friends of Cuba Society South Africa (FOCUS-SA). The SACP also congratulates our government for active solidarity with the people of Cuba on this and various fronts. Our government has been vocal in this struggle, and has consistently voted at the United Nations for the lifting of the U.S's illegal economic embargo on Cuba.
Restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US
The SACP welcomes the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed 53 years ago, in January 1961, two years after the Cuban revolution dislodged in 1959 the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista that was backed by the U.S in Cuba. The U.S further imposed an economic embargo on Cuba with the aim of collapsing Cuban independence and revolution through a series of interacting imperialist measures, this so-called "support for democracy".
The SACP condemns right-wing groupings mainly in the U.S. but also elsewhere who are campaigning against the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S., and the lifting of the U.S's economic embargo on Cuba. The SACP reiterates its call on the US to lift its economic embargo on Cuba unconditionally and completely with immediate effect!
The "crime" that the Cubans have committed is to assert their right to national self-determination including policy sovereignty over the direction of their own society. The SACP is deeply concerned that, in its statement, the U.S. administration has made no shift whatsoever from policy to interfere in Cuban affairs or those of other countries.
In essence the US government announced that it has adopted a new strategy to achieve the old objectives of imperialist interference in Cuba. The announcement essentially streamlines the pursuit of "regime change" based on new tactics and funding methods.
The SACP condemns this bad faith in strongest terms possible, and calls on the U.S. government to stop meddling with the right of the Cuban people to freely determine their own development policies - in particular the path of socialism that they, on their own will, have chosen!
Statement issued by the SACP, December 18 2014
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