Fife, Scotland – As tensions between the United States and Cuba continue to rise thousands of miles away, the North American power’s threats of political regime change against the island have provoked outrage on the other side of the Atlantic amongst the members of the Coast for Cuba (CFC) campaign.
The CFC consisted of a humanitarian mission which saw various trade unionists, representatives of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and non-affiliated members of the public walk 16 miles along the coast of Fife in Scotland on Saturday to raise money for humanitarian aid to Cuba.
Although the mission’s central purpose was humanitarian in nature, various participants expressed admiration for the Cuban Revolution, praising the island’s current socialist model of governance and rejection of American geopolitical influence despite its proximity to the superpower.
Chris Cullen, the Edinburgh and Lothians East candidate for the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) in the upcoming Scottish parliamentary elections, spoke to EU Reports about the mission’s raison d’etre.
“Cuba has been this bulwark of socialist ideals for so long … so while they [the U.S. government] are stopping oil from getting in there, we need to band together as the working class internationally and offer material support”.
The CFC “has raised about [£2000] for material support, for solar panels, for food and medical aid directly to the people in Cuba.”
Cullen also called for the British government to do more to oppose American sanctions. Referring to the British government’s consistent votes to condemn U.S. sanctions at the United Nations General Assembly, the communist candidate stated: “We can talk all day about what we condemn and that won’t change anything, it doesn’t change any material reality”.
“We need to … realise that America is doing some pretty horrific stuff all across the planet but we’re [the British government] just playing lapdog to them … we are a vassal state of American capitalism.”
Cuba is suffering an acute economic and humanitarian crisis due to the intensification of long-existing U.S. sanctions against the island in recent months; the U.S. has blockaded the vast majority of oil imports to Cuba.
These coercive economic sanctions have been accompanied by repeated political threats by high-ranking members of the Trump administration – including Trump himself – who have warned the Cuban political leadership that their days in power are numbered and that, after the war in Iran reaches a conclusion, Cuba is next.
For its part, the British government has not explicitly condemned the threats of regime change, although over 100 MPs called on Downing Street to oppose the Trump administration’s increased sanctions against the island in late March.
Despite the CFC’s insistence on its prioritization of support for the Cuban people, similar avowedly humanitarian missions to Cuba – such as the Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba – have faced criticism over their alleged endorsement of the Cuban state.
Human rights groups such as the World Organisation Against Torture, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report that the Cuban state criminalizes dissent, mistreats political prisoners and monopolizes control of the Cuban media.
When challenged on the CFC’s political stance, Ruaraidh Dempster, the campaign’s coordinator, told EU Reports that the deprivation in Cuba was such that he wanted “the aid that is provided by myself or anyone in the international movement [the UK-based Cuba solidarity campaign] … to go to people with favourable opinions of the government as much as people with unfavourable opinions of the government”.
Featured image description: The poster for the CFC campaign
Image Credit: Raphael McMahon (own picture)
