Caribbean Heroes Park Inaugurated in Cuba

Sources: radioreloj.cu & minrex.gob.cu

April 26 2019

.- The monument to the heroes of the Caribbean reflects the dedication of the martyrs who fought for a free and sovereign Caribbean, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Rogelio Sierra said.

During the inauguration of the Caribbean Heroes Park in Havana, with the presence of First Vice-President Salvador Valdes Mesa, Sierra added its coherence and interests identify the unity of our region.

The diplomat recalled that January 1, but of different centuries, is a symbolic date for the Caribbean because it marks the triumph of the Haitian Anti-slave Revolution and the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel.

The President of the National Assembly of People´s Power, Esteban Lazo; Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla, and the First Secretary of the party in Havana, Jose Antonio Torres Iribar attended the inauguration of the Caribbean Heroes Park.

Members of the Caribbean and Latin American diplomatic corps accredited in Cuba, ministers, representatives of national agencies and institutions closely linked to the Caribbean, members of the Caribbean Association of Cuba and the Chair of Caribbean Studies at the University of Havana also participated, as well as a large representation of students from the 14 member states of the Caribbean Community.

During the ceremony, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Rogelio Sierra Díaz, referred to the importance of the event, and highlighted the historic bonds of solidarity, brotherhood and gratitude that unite Cuba and the Caribbean. The Vice Chancellor highlighted “today we inaugurate a work that symbolizes the courage and commitment of those who made the independence and sovereignty of our peoples possible”.

The Ambassador of Grenada, Hon. Ms. Theresa Clair Clarice Charles, Dean of the Caribbean diplomatic corps, underscored the current relevance of CARICOM-Cuba relations, while thanking the Cuban government and people for their solidarity and cooperation throughout more than 40 years of exchanges. In her words, she said “we are grateful that Cuba has designed and built this monument, it is an imperishable symbol of our historical relations.”

Dr. Eduardo Torres Cuevas, President of the Academy of Cuban History and Director of the José Martí National Library, explained to the audience the symbolism of the sculptural work dedicated to the Caribbean heroes and said “this monument depicts unity. By building this park we are crowning a symbol that reflects all the intensity and capacity of our peoples. ”

As part of the ceremony Mr. Ellsworth John, Ambassador of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,  and Mr. Rogelio Sierra Díaz, the Cuban Vice-Chancellor, laid a wreath before the monument that pays tribute to the Caribbean heroes.

Cuba established diplomatic relations with the first four Caribbean countries on December 8, 1972. Since then, relations have been positive and have deepened from historical ties, based on the principles of solidarity, brotherhood and gratitude.

The Park of the Caribbean heroes pays tribute to personalities symbolizing the solidarity and bravery of the Caribbean peoples in their struggles against colonialism and for independence.

Within 24 Hours Two Million Venezuelan Signatures For Peace

Source: Internationalist 360
February 8 2019

Within 24 hours two million signatures have been collected in favor of peace

The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, during a press conference, held at the Miraflores Palace, on Friday, said that in just 24 hours two million signatures of Venezuelans have been collected, who subscribe to the Charter to peace, which will be delivered in a popular march in the White House.

“They have failed. Our country today is more determined than ever to fight for its independence, dignity, for its historic right to exist, for its right to peace”, he declared.

In the Simón Bolívar Room, at the presidential palace and in the presence of more than 60 representatives of audiovisual media and national and international agencies, the head of state began the meeting by saying: “we are facing and developing all of the defense of Venezuelan democracy, we are in a great day of defense of Venezuelan democracy, of the defense of national sovereignty, of the right to peace, three key elements that are linked: democracy, freedom of the people, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right to peace, three elements that are being subjected to harassment, permanent aggression, trying to impose, above the Constitution, formulas that are not contained in it: a dual, parallel, phantasmagoric government that is not supported by any letter or mandate of the Constitution”.

The constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro Moros, referred that the government of the United States, tried to violate the national sovereignty, at the same time mentioned the show “called humanitarian operation and the peace threatened by the government of Mr. Donald Trump who has ratified, last Sunday in television interview, his threat of military invasion against Venezuela”.

The National President mentioned the meeting in Montevideo, on the eve of this Wednesday, 6th, “for a diplomatic initiative for dialogue and peace in Venezuela, the governments of Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia and the 14 Caricom governments in the Caribbean, subscribed a document called the Montevideo Mechanism, which respectfully takes steps towards a dialogue among Venezuelans, with the facilitation and support of our Latin American and Caribbean brothers, within the framework of the principles of international law, the principles that unite us as a region”.

“I have greeted this initiative and I have confirmed that we are in the immediate disposition to accompany any action that goes in the way of diplomacy, dialogue, understanding, meeting, among Venezuelans, it seems very important that once again, from Latin America, from the Caribbean arise peace initiatives, respectful of national sovereignty so Venezuelans can work on a path of dialogue, peace, are very important initiatives”, he said.

He stressed the reaction of repudiation and rejection of the threats of Donald Trump in the world and said: “It is very dangerous that the president of the most powerful and aggressive military power in the world says he has the military option against Venezuela”.

White House naked

“Venezuelans ask ourselves: what is the cause of war? According to even international law, which has existed for decades, what is the pretext or motive to threaten a peaceful country? what is it? Is there any just cause, that could be called a pretext or motive, to threaten the use of force, in violation of the United Nations Charter?”, He asked responding: “We all know there is none, even beyond the opinions that some may have about the Bolivarian Revolution, of the revolutionary government that I preside, beyond the opinions some may have of the socialism of the XXI Century that we strive to work in building and creating, beyond that, there is an international law, there is international justice, and that right and that international justice, seen from any point of view, simply leave naked the intention of that dominant imperial elite in the White House to seize Venezuela for its oil resources, mining resources, for the great wealth of our country”.

He explained that from the United States an operation was mounted during the last years in order to harass, corral and surrender the country, however, he said: “They have failed, our country today is more determined than ever to fight for its independence, for its dignity, for its historical right to exist, for its right to peace”.

He reported that, just in 24 hours of starting the work day for peace, in all the Bolívar squares of the country, two million Venezuelans had demonstrated, with the collection of signatures, their support to the Open Letter to the American people, to be delivered in popular march to the White House, in the United States.

When considering the peace initiatives assumed by the Venezuelans, he expressed the way how daily lies have been fabricated about Venezuela, and denounced that the arguments, force and power of the Bolivarian Government are invisible.

“This press conference always has the interest that we, the invisible are heard, on behalf of the invisible, I speak to the peoples of the world, speak with the truth of Venezuela, so the truth of Venezuela reverberates and opens spaces of peace, understanding , respect, which is what we ask the world, respect, peace, democracy, is what we ask to the world”, he said.

He expressed: “you can not impose the unique thought, from the White House of Donald Trump to the world, the unique thought using all its power to destroy a country with a noble project, as it is the Bolivarian project, we have a lot of moral, spiritual and political reserve, in Venezuela, to inform you, social communicators of the world, Venezuela is standing and will keep standing, I hope this true can be transmitted on the keyboards of your computers before the avalanche of aggressions, lies, manipulations, and may the truth makes its room like a ray of fulminating light, that is our faith, for that faith we fight every day”.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro talks to the press at the presidential palace in Caracas on Friday, February 8.

The political situation in Venezuela is unclear after Maduro was sworn in for a second term as President and Venezuelan opposition leader and head of the National Assembly Juan Guaido declared the inauguration illegitimate, announcing himself interim president.

Maduro has condemned the decision of a number of countries to recognise Guaido as Venezuela’s acting president and blocked the entrance of humanitarian aid through the Colombian / Venezuelan border, claiming it would be the start of a US-led invasion.

Why Is Venezuela a Key Geopolitical Target for The US?

Source:  TeleSUR
January 25 2019

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denounced that the real objective of the United States behind imposing a new government in the South American nation is to appropriate the energy and mineral resources of this country.

“They have the ambition for oil, gas and gold. We tell them: these riches are not yours, they are for the people of Venezuela and that’s how it will be forever,” Nicolas Maduro warned on Wednesday, Jan. 23, in the Venezuelan capital Caracas shortly after opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido illegally declared himself “interim president” and received support for his unconstitutional move from the U.S., Canada and other right-wing governments in the region.

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A deeper look into the reasons behind such right-wing flood to support the parliamentary coup reveals that the objective behind such endorsement of an internationally illegal act is behind the publicly stated humanitarian reasons and in fact about robbing the country of its riches after two decades of progressive and sovereign policies by the Bolivarian government that limited Washington’s access to such resources.

Oil

According to the CIA World Factbook, as of Jan. 1, 2017, Venezuela had the largest proven oil reserve estimate of any country, including Saudi Arabia.

As of November 2017, the South American nation had 300,900,000,000 barrels of proven reserves in the “Hugo Chávez” Orinoco Oil Belt. After the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro for a second term, Donald Trump government began to consider expanding its sanctions on Venezuelan crude to add pressure against the constitutional president.

Oil analysts have indicated that the objective, beyond preventing the sale of oil to China, is to ensure a stable source of oil to serve the U.S. market that is increasing and that its own current production can not supply. On Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Energy revealed that its reserves decreased by 2.7 million barrels, reaching 437.1 million.

In terms of proven gas reserves, Venezuela had 198.3 trillion cubic feet in 2017, according to the Ministry of Petroleum. The new proven reserves are distributed in 2.3 trillion cubic feet of the traditional areas of Maracaibo, Maturin, Barcelona, Cumana and Barinas, and 718.7 trillion that lie in the blocks of the Oil Belt.

Mining resources

Venezuela has denounced the international campaign promoted by the United States against the Mining Arc where the reserves of gold, diamonds and other minerals such as coltan are concentrated.

The campaign against the Mining Arc has sought to increase the levels of economic suffocation in Venezuela by presenting Venezuelan gold as a product of trafficking and corruption.

In 2018 Venezuela advanced in the certification of more than 30 gold fields in the country, with which it aimed to establish itself “as the second largest gold reserve on the planet”.

During  2018 and despite the sanctions, the South American nation received a 200 percent increase in its non-oil exports compared to 2017, mainly gold sold to Holland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom and especially to Turkey. In the first months of 2018, Venezuela exported 23.62 tons of gold to the Eurasian nation, valued at US$900 million.

By representing an alternative to oil and one of the largest proven gold reserves in the world, the U.S. has renewed its interest in appropriating this mineral and obstructing the commercial exchange that Venezuela maintains with Russia and Turkey in the Mining Arc.

As President Nicolas Maduro denounced Wednesday, Washington’s real objective in Venezuela is to seize the immense natural and mineral resources of the South American nation.

Political Beacon in Latin America

In 1998, commander Hugo Chavez Frias had a pivotal electoral triumph that changed the fate of Latin America for around 20 years, from that time to this date, there have been up to 15 progressive democratically elected governments in the region.

Commander Chavez and Nicolas Maduro first as foreign affairs minister and then as president have been crucial in the integrationist efforts in Latin American, guided by the ideals of Simon Bolivar of a united continent. With the cooperation of other countries and presidents such as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Nestor Kirchner, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Manuel Zelaya, Fernando Lugo, Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Venezuela pushed forward for the regional integration of the continent.

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During these years some bodies of regional integration bodies were created such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), The Union of South American Nation (UNASUR), The Bank of the South, the News Network teleSUR, and the Southern Common Market to enforce South American trade bloc (MERCOSUR), all organizations that sought to create a more unified and independent Latin American and the Caribbean community.

From that moment a series of efforts began, in order to destabilize these governments. Soft coups against progressive presidents started, the first one against Chavez in 2002 which failed, then another against Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya in 2010, followed by a parliamentary maneuver against Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, and partially ending with a parliamentary coup against Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff in 2016.

These processes have been defined as “lawfare”, such as the current legal wrangling against Lula, to which we can add the more recent ones against Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas in Ecuador and a very similar process against Cristina Kirshner in Argentina.

The domino effect rising of right-wing governments in Latin America, and defeating the “National Popular governments” continues in the region, and Venezuela is one of the last standing defenses, along with Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and El Salvador.

This is why a destabilization mediatic and a political and economic campaign has been unleashed against Venezuela, and all the “National Popular governments” of Latin America, for years. Defeating Venezuela, one of the first progressive countries and governments in the region, is so important for the U.S. and the local right-wing oligarchies. It would be a defeat to progressivism in the region.

President Maduro Proposes Petro As ALBA’s Currency

Source:  TeleSUR
December 14 2018

“It’s been 14 years since the official founding of ALBA.  Today we can see the positive balance throughout all fields of ALBA: the social, the political, diplomatic and with the human side of things.  What is the main reason for our efforts?  To guarantee our region’s true independence and to guarantee the sustainability of a fair and social solidarity model for our people.   Without a doubt, it is the effort towards developing unity  and an economic, productive integration so we can,as a bloc, develop the vast resources of our countries.

I propose that ALBA assumes the Petro currency and cryptocurrency as the core of their financial efforts towards a future of reaching economic freedom.  I am officially proposing this befoe ALBA and all the peoples represented here.

The Petro is a reality, it was born under pressure fighting against sanctions and financial persecution…”  President Nicolas Maduro.

The legacy of Hugo Chavez

Reblogged from La Santa Mambisa

by Atilio Borón

Today, March 5, five years have passed since the physical disappearance of Hugo Chávez Frías and it is fair and necessary to provide a brief reflection on the legacy left by his presence in Venezuela and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

As before, in 1959, Fidel with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Chávez’s irruption into the politics of his country quickly became internationalized and reached a continental projection. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in a forty-year period (remember that the Bolivarian assumed the presidency of his country in 1999) the contemporary history of Our America experienced those two political earthquakes that irreversibly modified the political and social landscape of the region.

Fighting for the Second and Definitive Independence

Chávez picked up the flags that had been raised by Fidel and with his martial exhortation to fight for the Second and Definitive Independence of our peoples, he enclaved them in the fertile terrain of the Bolivarian tradition.  With Chávez, that which portrayed Neruda’s verse when the Liberator said “I wake up every hundred years when the town wakes up” became a reality. And with the rebellion of 4F Chávez ended the lethargy of the people, a rebellion that, “for now”, had been defeated. But Chávez knew that this people was already getting ready to fight the great battles that had been summoned by Bolívar, re-incarnated in the bodies and souls of millions of Venezuelans and Venezuelans who took to the streets to install Chávez in the Miraflores Palace.

A revolution in consciences

The five years that have elapsed since its sowing provide enough perspective to evaluate the scope of its leafy and multifaceted legacy. The economic and social advances experienced by the Venezuelan people, today attacked with fierce savagery by the American debauchery and the infamy of their local lieutenants, are important but they are not essential. In our opinion, the fundamental, the essential thing is that Chávez produced a revolution in consciences, forever changed the heads of our peoples, and this is a more significant and lasting achievement than any economic benefit. Thanks to Chávez,

In his native country and in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, the idea became evident that the advances achieved in the last twenty years are irreversible and that any pretension to return to the past will face enormous popular resistances. The immense popularity of Chávez throughout the region reveals the depth of these changes experienced in the popular imagination.

Some say, with obvious malice, that the “progressive cycle” has come to an end. But the ventriloquists of imperialism in vain try to hide that the heroic resistance of Venezuelans to the brutal aggressions and attacks launched by Washington reveals, on the contrary, that despite the enormous difficulties and privations of all kinds to which the Chavist people are subjected, they will not tolerate a return to the past, to that “moribund constitution” that Chávez replaced with an exemplary piece of law. And that town resists, and it does so with such force that the opposition that asked for elections to end the government of Nicolás Maduro now does not want to compete because he knows that it will be devastated by a Chavista tsunami. His choice now is clearly extra institutional or, more clearly, insurrectional.

The people are resisting

The people are resisting in Venezuela, the Honduran people fought with incredible heroism, before the electoral farce mounted by “the embassy” in Tegucigalpa. Three months have passed since the proclamation of the triumph of Juan O. Hernández and the people remain in the streets protesting that obscene electoral robbery. As did the Mexicans before, for months, because of the robbery perpetrated against Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the 2012 elections. People who support the progressive and left candidates in Mexico (again with López Obrador) and in Colombia (Gustavo Petro); have displayed, as was shown in Chile with their abstention, their rejection of the electoral fraud mounted in the presidential elections.

The people are resisting also in Brazil, where Michel Temer, is the most unpopular president in recent history (with a level of approval of 3%, while his negative image is around 75%) and fight for honest elections with Lula as a candidate . And in Peru, where the government of Pedro P. Kuczinski was burdened by the evidence of the Odebrecht case and is shaken by the growing wave of discontent that runs through the country. The people in Argentina are resisting with determination and courage , placing on the defensive the government of Mauricio Macri and throwing thick shadows of doubt about the possible continuity of the government of Cambiemos after the elections of 2019.

No “end of cycle”

Here is the extraordinary legacy of Chávez: he changed the conscience of the people, triumphed in the “battle of ideas” claimed by Fidel and as a result of which in Latin America and the Caribbean the right can no longer win elections, with the lonely -and surely temporary – exception of Argentina. In other countries the empire must resort to the “soft coup” as in Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil; or to the most blatant fraud, as in Honduras and Mexico; or unloading its immense media power to frighten and confuse the population, as in Bolivia, or to mediate the corruption of the government of Mauricio Macri in Argentina; or appealing to the old Colombian record of assassinating the candidates of the opposition forces, just two days ago they tried to do it with Gustavo Petro, which leads the intention to vote in the suffering and endearing Colombia. And where there are still no leftist or progressive forces that are constituted as true alternatives, in the case of Chile, the popular response is the withdrawal and repudiation of that conservative and neocolonial political leadership. Conclusion: no “end of cycle”. The struggle continues while the right tries unsuccessfully to stabilize its restoration project, which until now is just that, a project.

Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases

Source:  World Peace Council
January 23 2018

The Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases was held successfully on January 12-14, at Learning Commons Town Hall, University of Baltimore, USA. Attached are the resolutions of the conference.

 

 hiroji_statement.pdf

 resolution_on_global_conference.pdf

 resolution_on_guantanamo.pdf

 resolution_on_spring_day_of_anti-war_action.pdf

US Peace Council

RESOLUTION ON GLOBAL DAY OF ACTIONS AGAINST GUANTANAMO
(on or around February 23rd, 2018)

WHEREAS, February 23, 2018 is the 115th Anniversary of the seizure of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the United States to create a foreign Military Base, a result of the U.S. provoked Spanish-American War, and further

WHEREAS, the United States used its military power to force the Cuban Constitutional Convention to accept the seizure in its Constitution, and further

WHEREAS, upon the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 Cuba demanded the repudiation of the Treaty, ceased cashing the annual U.S. Payment of $4,085 and called for the complete sovereignty of the Bay by the Cuban Government, and further

WHEREAS, the United States has refused to return Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban people, citing the forcibly imposed Clause in the Treaty that BOTH parties must agree to the cancellation of the Treaty, and further

WHEREAS, U.S. occupation of Guantanamo Bay provides United States military dominance in the Caribbean and South America and is a threat to the independence and sovereignty of the peoples in that vast area, and further

WHEREAS, under U.S. control, Guantanamo Bay has become a center of torture and abrogation of human rights, violations of elementary U.S. and international standards that are condemned by the civilized world,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Bases unanimously calls upon the global peace movement to organize, on or around February 23, 2018, Actions calling for the United States to promptly withdraw all its forces and personnel from Guantanamo Bay and immediately declare ALL agreements ceding Cuban control of Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. to be null and void.

Namibia: President Geingob Urges World to Resolve Western Sahara Issue

Source:  AllAfrica.com
September 5 2017

By Albertina Nakale

President has reminded the world that the protracted Western Sahara issue still needs sorting out.

Namibia has on many occasions undertaken not to tire in its quest to see Morocco, which was recently re-admitted into the African Union (AU), give up its illegal occupation of Western Sahara.

Geingob made the call in Windhoek yesterday when he addressed a conference of the African-European party dialogue of socialists and democrats, aimed at overcoming inequality as a political challenge.

Why are socialists quiet?

“I don’t know why socialists are quiet. We are not assisting those who want to get their independence. In Europe and Africa, we are not helping them [Western Sahara] to get self-independence. We don’t hear [anything] it’s only Southern Africa. Why are you quiet?” Geingob asked.

The president is hopeful that Europeans and other African nations will follow Namibia’s stance to stand up against Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara.

RELATED:  Mozambique Condemns Moroccan Attack On SADR Delegation

Geingob has on many occasions spoken out in support of the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, following similar stern demands by National Assembly Speaker Professor Peter Katjavivi and International Relations Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.

In an interview with New Era, Katjivivi echoed Geingob’s stance for the global community to stand up and speak out in support of the people of Western Sahara.

He revealed that members of the Namibian parliament are due to attend the Interparliamentary Union (Union) Conference in Russia in October, where they will make sure to push the agenda for self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

“All member parliaments are going to be there. We are interested to see that the voice of the people of Western Sahara is heard. There is the danger now that Morocco has been campaigning for and pushing its own agenda and basically trying to undermine the solidarity and support being extended to the people of Western Sahara. We cannot afford to undermine the push for freedom and independence for the people of Western Sahara,” Katjavivi told New Era yesterday.He explained it is in that context that he welcomed Geingob’s stance in reminding the world that the question of Western Sahara and Palestine is still outstanding.

Celebrating Jamaica’s Quest for Emancipation and True Independence: An “Aagus Maanin” Exhortation

August 1 2017
By  Nyron W.Lemonius

Enjoy di Aagus Maanin together.

Sit with your neighbours.

Our history

Talk about the history of our people: our joys, the cruelty we endured and endure; our struggles, how we overcame, our new and evolving struggles, our vision, our dreams, our hope…

Identify and name those who hurt us, from the early formation of the non-Arawak Jamaica, through slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism; those driven by greed and selfishness; those who, wherever they go, leave footprints of cruelty, barbarism and actions devoid of a humane spirit.

The community

Teach the building of our unity; teach the knowledge of our collective self and of our individual self; teach of our love, our God, our goal, our purpose.

Explain the need for the balance between the individual self and the collective self in our thoughts and actions, if we are to forge a brighter future for ourselves and our Jamaican society. The individual’s definition, meaning, and value are found only in community and are ascribed only by the community. No individual is greater than the community of which he is a part.

Revulsion to cruelty

Develop the spirit and sense of revulsion to cruelty and to oppression and injustice everywhere; develop and deepen our sense of obligation and of duty to respond systematically and strategically to injustice and to the domination of the “weak” by the “strong”. Our response must be disciplined and organised, and must be built on a platform of positive love and unadulterated truth.

Let the Universal Choir of the Oppressed chant songs of freedom with harmonies that are produced only by our acquaintance with pain, suffering, and the dream and hope of true and lasting liberty and peace, girded by dignity, stateliness, and respect for neighbour.

Let him that has most, give most; let him that has greatest need, receive most. “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Study

Work. Study the duty, discipline, and joy of the love for humanity, of Mathematics, Science, and technologies. Foster, nurture, and develop our creativity and our innovativeness.

Replenish our environment: always give more than we take.

Finally, let our single purpose be this: TO TURN THIS UP-SIDE DOWN WORLD UP-SIDE UP!

Let us strive to right every wrong.

Let us not rest until in Jamaica “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

A better Jamaica

Truly, a better Jamaica is possible. … A better Jamaica is … NECESSARY!

Our struggle for better living conditions of human dignity, justice, freedom, security, and peace in a place that we call our home; a struggle which began years ago on the shores of Africa, is not yet over. We have gained much through our foreparents like Tacky, Nanny, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle and more recently through Marcus Garvey and Michael Manley.  Yet we have much to accomplish.

So, our struggle continues.  Our struggle is just; our cause is highly principled, and is most reasonable. For this reason, we are supremely confident that with honesty, respect, discipline, organisation, and hard work … we shall overcome!

 

Martinique and Algeria’s Franz Fanon Remembered

Source:  TeleSUR
December 6 2016

“When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.”

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Frantz Omar Fanon was born July 20, 1925, in the Caribbean nation of Martinique and died on Dec. 6, 1961. He was a revolutionary philosopher, writer and psychiatrist who participated and influenced political processes for liberation across the world. His work has marked decolonial thought and anti-colonial struggles for the globally oppressed, especially African nations and people of the African diaspora.

 

Th Wretched of the Earth

Fanon supported the Algerian War of Independence from France and was actively involved in the Algerian National Liberation Front. Although he lived a comparatively short life, Fanon produced emblematic texts and theories that have proliferated anti-colonial revolutionary thought such as “Black Skin, White Masks” (1952) and “The Wretched of the Earth”(1961).

Fanon’s political thought encompassed the implications and consequences of colonization. He focused considerably on anti-colonial struggles of the time and people’s transforming consciousness. He focused on language, land and other factors that were utilized by the colonizer to oppress people’s of the world.

Ridding the people’s mind of the impact of imperialism

Fanon detailed the connections between the systematic colonization of people, land and language. For example, Fanon declared that “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.” As such, he defended that “For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.”

In 1953, Fanon was named the Head of the Psychiatry Department of the Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria. There, he spearheaded patient care reform and desegregated the wards. The war for Algerian independence began during this time and patients shared with Fanon stories of torture and brutality. Learning the realities first-hand of the Algerian cause, in 1956, Fanon resigned from his position with the French government to struggle for Algerian independence.

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Algerian independence

Fanon went to Tunisia and began to work with the Algerian independence forces. He documented the independence movement writing articles in a number of publications. Several of his pieces were published after his death. He also served as the Ambassador to Ghana for the Provisional Algerian Government.

After returning from a trip to the Sahara to build another front for the Algerian independence movement, Fanon was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite the burden of his illness, Fanon continued to give lectures to the National Liberation Army along the Algero-Tunisian border.

His final text, “The Wretched of the Earth” was written in 10 months as he fought his cancer. Jean Paul Sartre published the text the year of his death. He sought treatment for his cancer but died in Bethesda, Maryland Dec. 6, 1961. Fanon’s body was buried with honors by the ALN and his body currently rests at the martyrs’ graveyard in Ain Kerma, Algeria.

Angolan President Dos Santos thanks Cuba

Source:  Cuban News Agency
Luanda, November 14 2015

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, on behalf of his government and people, thanked Cuba for its participation in the independence struggle and the subsequent reconstruction of his country.

Diplomatic circles revealed that such gratitude was expressed on Thursday, in Luanda when Dos Santos received a Cuban delegation headed by Salvador Valdes Mesa, Vice President of the State Council, to attend the events commemorating the 40th anniversary of national independence.

In a fraternal and friendly atmosphere, the host leader praised the historic relations between the two countries since the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and President Agostinho Neto decided to send Cuban troops to help the People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola.

Meanwhile, Valdes Mesa conveyed the greetings of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, President Raul Castro, the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban people and Government to the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

Raúl Díaz-Argüelles Garcia

Before his departure , the Cuban leader paid tribute to the internationalist combatant from his country, Raul Diaz Arguelles, who fell at the Battle of Ebo on December 11, 1975, a month after Neto enacted emancipation.

After laying a wreath at Luanda’s Alto Las Cruces cemetery, where the remains of commander Arguelles rest; Valdes Mesa said: “We also dedicate this simple tribute to all Cuban internationalist combatants who, together with Angolans, fought to defend the sovereignty of Neto´s homeland”.

As part of the agenda, the Cuban vice president also met with a group of collaborators of the island, representing more than four thousand Cubans contributing to the development of this African nation.

Valdes Mesa, who arrived in Luanda on November 10th, spoke on that date with the president of the National Assembly of Angola, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos.

Source:  Angolan President Dos Santos thanks Cuba  Cuban NewsAgency