- by FK
- The Guardian
- Issue #2133
Cuba is a long way from Australia, just under 17,000 km if you fly in a straight line. Cuba is located in the Caribbean sea, close to Mexico, the Bahamas, the USA, and Jamaica, but a long way from Australia. Its top three export partners are Canada, China, and Venezuela.
So it’s a long way from here, and Australia doesn’t have much to do with it. Why all the Cuba articles?
The Guardian, the Workers Weekly prints a lot of material about Cuba for the following reasons:
Cuba is an inspiration. This small country, with only ten million inhabitants, has achieved an independence from the United States and from its former colonial masters, the Spanish, that Australia still doesn’t have. It has maintained this independence for sixty years in the face of a vicious US blockade made up of some 240 separate measures, all designed to starve and punish the Cuban people for doing it their way.
Any country can be independent, but what socialist Cuba has done with that independence is really something. The country ended illiteracy with innovative techniques it now exports, and prioritised medicine and culture with outstanding results. Cuba, where the scientists earn a fraction of the wage their counterparts in Australia do, produced five workable vaccines for Covid. The French, who don’t have to run the gauntlet of blockade measures to obtain basic supplies, produced none.
Cuba has a government that puts people first. Schools and universities are free, something Australia could easily afford. Schools have doctors and dentists on hand. Although Cuba is not a wealthy country by any means, streets are safe, and crime is low.
The socialism in Cuba is particularly Cuban, both in being very democratic and in touch with the people. Politicians keep their regular jobs, instead of becoming a class apart. The country had a referendum on its Family Code which legalised same-sex marriage and other rights, after workshopping the changes around the country for most of a year. The Cuban constitution forbids any discrimination harmful to human dignity.
Also inspiring is the socialist government’s internationalist approach. Cuba has supported liberation struggles around the world, and is famous for exporting doctors, sending medical teams all over the world to help out during natural disasters, most recently to Pakistan. Cuba has also sent literacy teachers to Australia, to practice the Cuban-developed ‘Yes, I can’ program.
Cuban internationalism has also seen it host peace conferences between Colombian groups to help with the peace process there. One of those peace conferences was the pretext for the USA to put Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Cuba is also a warning of what the USA will do if it doesn’t get its way. There’s no talking about Cuba without mentioning the Blockade. The USA has been blockading Cuba in one way or another since 1960. The original purpose of the blockade included the goal of bringing about “hunger and desperation.” In typical bullying style, the 1996 Helms-Burton Act punishes foreign companies that trade with Cuba. The effects of the Blockade are visible in shortages throughout Cuba, in the higher prices Cubans have to pay for basics, and in the difficulty people face just travelling to Cuba. If you’re Australian and travel to Cuba – something we strongly recommend – you should prepare financially. A lot of Australian banks won’t even let you check your account if they know you’re in Cuba.
Australia votes against the sanctions in the United Nations, but could do a lot more. Our government could direct banks not to impose US sanctions on Australian citizens for a start.
This paper will continue to have a lot of Cuba coverage – partly because Cuba is one of the many topics you’ll read about here, but not in the rest of the Australian media, partly because what happens to Cuba shows up the US pretence to freedom for what it is, but mainly for the inspiration.
We encourage all our readers to be informed about Cuba and to support it against the Blockade. Support the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society in your State or Territory. If you can, join in the next Southern Cross Brigade, and if you can’t, support it.
Viva Cuba!
