“Cuba is a sponsor of peace, not terrorism,” Calla Walsh, co-chair of the National Network on Cuba, told Peoples Dispatch in front of the White House Sunday. Solidarity organizations and left-wing groups converged in Washington DC on Sunday, June 25, to demand that US President Biden take Cuba off of the US’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. These organizations included the National Network on Cuba, the International People’s Assembly, IFCO/Pastors for Peace, the Peoples Forum, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Demonstrators first gathered at the José de San Martín Monument, a gift from Argentina to the US to honor the Latin American liberator. Organizers noted the significance of the monument to the ideals of democracy and liberty that the US prides itself on. Demonstrators then marched to the White House, passing the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the way.
Organizers also called for Biden to put an end to the 60-plus-year US blockade against Cuba, and an end to US sanctions against sovereign nations worldwide.
Kameron Hurt of the International People’s Assembly spoke to the crowd assembled in front of the White House, “When I look around this crowd, I see people’s power in its truest form. I see people’s power, because that’s what it’s gonna take to defeat this blockade. To defeat the sanctions. To defeat the sanctions on all countries. We mean against Cuba, we mean against the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we mean against the people of Iran, the people of Venezuela, Syria, any people who face this empire.”
Many speakers decried the many ways that Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism by the US, as well as the blockade as a whole, wages economic war against the Cuban people. Lillian House of the ANSWER Coalition told the crowd on the hot summer day, with temperatures reaching almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit, “The discomfort that we’re feeling in the sun is nothing compared to the steady discomfort that the people of Cuba experience every day in so many ways, that is unnecessary, and is due to the cruelty of our government.”
Former US president Donald Trump quickly reversed the significant advances made by the Barack Obama administration in warming ties between the US and Cuba, soon after taking office. In addition to restricting travel and tourism to the island once again, Trump imposed an additional 243 unilateral coercive measures against the island and before leaving office, re-added Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, a designation that Obama had removed. Biden, despite having served alongside Obama as his vice president, has not deviated from Trump’s policy of intensifying pressure against Cuba and left most of the sanctions in place as well as the SSoT designation.
“During the COVID health crisis, when Cuba was fighting for the survival of its people, without access to medical supplies that everyone else in the world can purchase, can trade, that was when [Trump] put Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terror[ism] list, knowing that’s a lie!” House said.
The Amazon Labor Union made a strong showing at the rally, coming off the heels of participating in a brigade to Cuba in May. Chris Smalls, who visited the White House when ALU successfully organized the first Amazon union in the country, openly denounced Biden’s policy against Cuba. “I was invited to the White House this past Tuesday, for Juneteenth. I was supposed to be right here on the other side of the wall, celebrating the ending of slavery,” Smalls said. “But I declined that. Matter of fact, I’m here today to let them know… Do not invite me to the White House anymore until you end the blockade!”
Demonstrators also upheld the importance of organizing in the United States, not only against the blockade, but around all issues that affect the working class in the US. As Kameron Hurt said to the crowd, “Above all else, above the sympathy, above aid, what the people of Cuba need, is revolutionaries in the United States!”
