Newsletter

Canadian Network on Cuba February Newsletter

CNC Celebrates Black History Month!

Webmaster

10 Feb 2023 — 7 min read

Welcome to the first edition of the CNC newsletter.

We will keep you updated on the most relevant news and events of our work of solidarity with the heroic people of Cuba. We continue to promote friendship between the peoples of Cuba and Canada seeking a better understanding of the Cuban reality.

The fight against the blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than sixty years is one of our main goals. It is imperative that the US government lift this system of punitive sanctions which violates the basic human rights of the Cuban people and inflicts great damage to its economy preventing the development of that country and affecting negatively the quality of live of the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

We have sent an open letter to the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressing our gratitude for his commitment to lead an international movement to demand the end of the US blockade and we invite you to join our solidarity effort against injustice and for the just cause of Cuba.

Samantha Hislop

Julio Fonseca

Co-Chairs Canadian Network on Cuba

Open Letter to President AMLO

Dear President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico,

The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC), an organization comprised of 24 member-groups across Canada that work in solidarity with Cuba, would like to express our highest commendation and support for your recent statements and declared intention, pledging that Mexico will lead an international movement against the more than 60-year-old illegal US blockade against Cuba, and your rightful recognition of the successes of the Cuban Revolution and the example that the resistance of the Cuban people sets for countries around the world.

The CNC applauds Mexico’s position both in the context of solidarity with Cuba, as well as in its broader importance with regards to foreign policy, national sovereignty and independence, and the prioritization of basic, fundamental human rights, such as access to healthcare and education, and food security for all people, as opposed to allowing them to be marketable for profit by oligarchs.

Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the Americas that did not sever relations with Cuba after its revolution in 1959. The CNC fully supports the Mexican people in this endeavor of solidarity with the Cuban people, and we affirm our commitment to join in solidarity with Mexico, and all progressive countries, and contribute to this movement in any way that we can.

The United States has no right to subjugate another country or people, and Cuba has been a victim of its terrorism for more than six decades. The Cuban people need our collective solidarity more than ever before, and that we act to demand and actualize the removal of the criminal sanctions against Cuba. The CNC will continue doing everything that it can to show our gratitude to revolutionary Cuba for the precedent that it sets for the world, and that necessitates the elimination of the blockade.

Samantha Hislop

Julio Fonseca

Co-Chairs, Canadian Network on Cuba

Querido presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador,

La Red Canadiense de Solidaridad con Cuba (CNC, por sus siglas en inglés), compuesta por 24 grupos de solidaridad con Cuba de todo Canadá, expresa sus más altos elogios y apoyo a sus recientes declaraciones e intención de que México promete liderar un movimiento internacional contra el ilegal bloqueo de EEUU impuesto unilateralmente desde hace más de 60 años contra el pueblo cubano y el reconocimiento suyo de los muchos logros de la Revolución Cubana, y su ejemplo de resistencia que sirve de paradigma para los pueblos del mundo.

La CNC aplaude la posición de México tanto en el contexto de la solidaridad con Cuba como en su más amplia relevancia en cuanto a política exterior, soberanía nacional e independencia y la priorización de los derechos humanos fundamentales tales como educación, salud pública y seguridad alimentaria para todos, opuesto a dejar que nuestros pueblos se conviertan en objeto comercializable de ganancias para los oligarcas.

Canadá y México fueron los únicos dos países en las Américas que no rompieron relaciones diplomáticas con Cuba después del triunfo revolucionario de 1959. La CNC respalda totalmente al pueblo mexicano en su empeño de solidaridad con el pueblo cubano y reafirmamos nuestro compromiso de unirnos a esa solidaridad y a todas las fuerzas progresistas del mundo, y contribuir a este movimiento de cualquier forma a nuestro alcance.

Los EEUU no tienen derecho a subyugar a otros pueblos y Cuba ha sido víctima de ese terrorismo por más de seis décadas. El pueblo cubano, ahora más que nunca, necesita de nuestra solidaridad colectiva y que actuemos demandando la eliminación de las sanciones contra su heroico pueblo. La CNC continuará haciendo todo lo posible para mostrar nuestra gratitud a la Cuba revolucionaria por el precedente que establece para el mundo y que precisa la eliminación del bloqueo.

¡Abajo el bloqueo!

Samantha Hislop

Julio Fonseca

Co-Chairs, Canadian Network on Cuba

CNC Webinar and Virtual Book Launch

Join us on February 27th for our virtual book launch, celebrating the publication of Isaac Saney’s new book Cuba, Africa and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return!

Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa's Children Return! examines the history and impressive dimensions of the Cuban Revolution’s solidarity with Africa. Cuba’s role in the southern African national liberation and anti-colonial struggle was the largest and most consequential manifestation of the island’s commitment to Africa. A key moment was the 1987–1988 battle of Cuito Cuanavale, which involved Cuba and Angola on one side, and South Africa and its allies on the other. Cuito Cuanavale contributed the end of apartheid and has assumed legendary status within the Cuban Revolution and the southern African liberation movement.

We will be joined live by Isaac to talk about his book, as well as with a number of other guests to be announced.

The 29th Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade is coming up April 27-May 11, 2023! The first week will be based in Havana and will include May Day in Revolution Square; the second week will be in the western province of Pinar del Rio. While there are details yet to be worked out with the Cuban host, ICAP, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People, many parts of the program are already available and below. The brigade is an outstanding way to travel to Cuba, meet the Cubans, work alongside them, participate, contribute and learn.

Please look over and think about it, and put in your application if it will work for you this year.

We can help people with fundraising ideas. Last year's cost was $1100 for the brigade plus airfare and incidentals. This year's cost is not yet set.

Events

If you’d like your Cuba Solidarity event featured in an upcoming edition of this newsletter, please email the details and event poster to webmaster@canadiannetworkoncuba.ca

TORONTO

CCFA-Toronto and other groups have organized a rally in conjunction with the Bridges of Love Campaign Miami. Join us and the world to call for the end of this immoral blockade of Cuba. Sunday, Feburary 26, from 1 - 2 p.m. Across from U.S. Consulate 360 University Ave. (Between Queen and Dundas)

For more information, call CCFA Toronto (647) 501-1219

VANCOUVER

On February 26th, 2023, Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade – Vancouver (FCAB-Vancouver) will once again gather to call for an immediate end to the U.S. blockade on Cuba. There will also be a report back from four Cuba solidarity organizers who recently returned from Cuba’s First International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Left Parties and Movements. The group will then hit the streets with our vehicles covered in anti-blockade signs and Cuban flags while demanding: Lift the blockade on Cuba now! Cuba si, bloqueo no! Abajo el bloqueo!

For location email: nobloqueovancouver@gmail.com

WINNIPEG

The Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Committee will be holding a rally on Sunday, February 26th from 1pm - 2pm in Winnipeg at the corner of River Avenue and Osbrorne Street. This event as part of the world wide Puentes De Amor rallies against the illegal and inhumane U.S. Blockade on Cuba.

For more information email manitobacubasolidarity@gmail.com