Say no to placing Cuba on terrorism list

Exactly 62 years ago this Friday, January 1, the Cuban Revolution triumphed.  Socialist Cuba soon achieved major advances in the well-being of its own citizens, and also provided an outstanding example of solidarity to the world, playing a major role in the defeat of the fascist apartheid regime in South Africa and providing high-quality health care solidarity to poor countries worldwide.

U.S. imperialism cannot forgive Cuba for these things,  and from the outset has tried to undermine the Cuban economy and destabilize its society by means of terrorism,  economic sabotage, and a seemingly unending economic, trade, and fiscal blockade—with the purpose of  reversing  the Revolution, erasing its national and international achievements, and bringing this nation of 11 million back into the imperialist fold.

By 2014, however, it became clear that this had not worked. In December of that year, President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro announced measures tending toward a normalization of relations. Full diplomatic relations were restored shortly thereafter, and travel restrictions were loosened by the United States.  Cuba was taken off the U.S. “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list in 2015.  However, the damaging commercial blockade was not lifted before Obama left office in January 2016.  And the extremist administration of Donald Trump has worked to reverse the modest progress made since 2014.

Since coming to power, the Trump administration has imposed at least 200 new restrictions designed to hurt the Cuban economy and undermine the living standards of the people, while continuing to fund tiny anti-government organizations active in the island.

Now it appears that the U.S. may well be planning to return Cuba to the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list. On December 29, the New York Times reported that some forces in the U.S. State Department are asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to do just that.  One theory is that, as Biden has suggested, he would move away from Trump’s extremist anti-Cuba policy, the Trump administration and its ultra-right supporters want to create a situation that would “box in” the Biden administration and make it harder for it to reverse course.

Cuba should never have been placed on the “State  Sponsors of Terrorism” list in the first place.  Such a list is of no value anyway, and its creation and use is a cynical ploy by imperialism to hide its own crimes. And Cuba has been for many years a victim, not a perpetrator of terrorist attacks, most of them emanating from the United States.  As recently as April of 2020, there was a terrorist attack on the Cuban Embassy in downtown Washington, D.C.  Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but it is also notable that to date, the Trump administration and the Pompeo State Department have not issued a single word of condemnation.

The Communist Party USA condemns any such move, or any continuation of the Trump administration’s anti-Cuba policies.  The incoming administration has said it wants to reset relations with Cuba. Good. We demand that the Biden administration revoke all the anti-Cuba policies imposed by Trump since he came to power.  Furthermore, we call on the new Congress to repeal the legislation that undergirds the economic blockade, including especially the Toricelli Act and the Helms-Burton Act.

Furthermore, we call on our members and friends to raise their voices to demand these things, and to support two ongoing campaigns to this end, namely, the campaign to get city councils, state legislatures and other public bodies to pass resolutions calling for an end to the blockade, and the international campaign to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Cuba’s outstanding  international health solidarity program.