Stand up to the US blockade, break the siege on Cuba: Canada must send oil and aid

The Communist Party of Canada demands that the Canadian government immediately break its silence and take concrete action to defy Donald Trump’s act of economic warfare against Cuba. The January 29 executive order, imposing a total blockade on fuel supplies to the island, is designed to strangle the Cuban people and create a humanitarian catastrophe. These actions are already escalating mass suffering in Cuba and are a direct challenge to the sovereignty of every country in the hemisphere. The so-called “Donroe doctrine,” which asserts U.S. domination over the Americas, must be defeated, and it is in the direct interest of working people in Canada to stand against it.

Due to the barbaric acts of the U.S. government, the situation in Cuba is very serious. Over 75 per cent of the country’s oil imports have vanished in a single month. Hospitals are running on generators that are now running out of fuel. Power blackouts lasting up to 16 hours a day threaten patient care and food preservation. Local agriculture is at risk of collapse, threatening to tip the island into famine. This is the deliberate result of U.S. policy, economic genocide designed to force political surrender through starvation and suffering.

Why is the United States punishing Cuba so brutally? Because Cuba dared to exercise its right to self-determination. It kicked out U.S. corporations and gangsters, eliminated extreme poverty and illiteracy, and built a socialist society that remains a beacon of hope. Despite more than 60 years of imperialist aggression, Cuba has provided free education and medical care to its people, achieving life expectancies that rival advanced industrialized countries. For proving that working people can build socialism, it is being strangled.

This blockade is a flagrant violation of international law. It constitutes unilateral economic coercion with extraterritorial effects, imposed without UN Security Council authorization and despite repeated and overwhelming UN votes calling for an end to the US blockade. It violates the fundamental principles of sovereign equality, non-intervention, and self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter. Yet global financial institutions, intimidated by aggressive U.S. sanctions enforcement, have largely abandoned Cuba, costing the island at least $130 billion by 2018 and many more billions of dollars in the last few years as the blockade has been strengthened.

Prime Minister Mark Carney declared at Davos that the era of accommodating coercion must end, calling for “a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He urged the world to remain “principled in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force, except when consistent with the UN Charter, and respect for human rights.” While Carney’s plainly hypocritical rhetoric was in fact aimed at repositioning Canada within the NATO imperialist bloc, his words resonated with working people who genuinely want a foreign policy based on peace and sovereignty. We must build a movement to make that vision a reality.

The Canadian government’s response so far has been a disgrace. When pressed in the House of Commons, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand responded not by condemning U.S. aggression or offering aid, but by saying that consular officials “stand ready to support Canadians in need.” In the face of a deliberate humanitarian disaster, Ottawa’s only concern was for Canadian tourists. Anand knows this is an illegal escalation. So far, she has chosen silence and complicity.

Canada has maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba for decades, against the wishes of the United States government. Canadians visit Cuba more than any other Caribbean nation. Canada is Cuba’s second-largest source of foreign investment. The Canadian government must immediately condemn this act of economic terror, use all diplomatic means to oppose the blockade, and strengthen trade and cooperation to help Cuba withstand this assault.

Concrete action is required. Canada must ship oil to Cuba immediately. We must work with other regional powers to break the siege. We must also reopen flights and restore the tourist industry, making it easy for Canadians to travel to Cuba and support its economy. These actions would encourage other governments to follow suit. The greatest risk is doing nothing, allowing the U.S. to systematically destroy independent countries.

We call on all trade unions and people’s organizations to build a broad movement that forces the Canadian government to stand against U.S. aggression and provide material support to Cuba. There are millions of Canadians with ties to Cuba who can be brought into the fight. The defence of Cuban sovereignty is the defence of sovereignty everywhere. Let Cuba Live!

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada