“What we are seeing is essentially another era of McCarthyism, and the beginning of another cold war,” says Matty Lind, organizer for the Milwaukee Chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. What he refers to is the current situation in Cuba, where protests and counter protests have erupted, seemingly as a response to the shortage of vaccines for COVID-19, as well as food shortages and widespread electricity outages. The medical infrastructure recently collapsed due to a rapidly increasing number of infected people, with vaccination records at over two million people who have gotten the three scheduled shots in Cuba. The effects of the U.S. embargo, the collapse of the capital income sources, no tourism, the decline of tobacco, rum and nickel sales and the Delta variant of COVID have created the perfect storm.
Some Cuban Americans in Florida have called for a U.S. military intervention, but the people of Cuba have no doubt been seeing the macabre plans of that intervention, which they say feels like the pursuit of destabilizing their country when they are at their weakest. According to Belly Of the Beast Cuba, residents feel that the problems of Cuba should be solved by Cubans themselves, as the country is not a colony.
The last Sunday in July was dedicated to showing solidarity with those Cuban people, led by Matty Kind and Art Heitzer, who held a caravan that began at the Mitchell Park Domes co-organized by the Wisconsin Cuba Coalition. This was the fourth caravan this year, and support from local grassroots organizations such as Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR), Freedom Road Socialst Organization (FRSO), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Voces de la Frontera has been overwhelming.
End the Blockade
The caravans have spread worldwide initiated by Cuban Americans in Miami to end the U.S. blockade and to support Cuban families. The economic blockade of Cuba is now 60 years old, and the Trump administration stopped Western Union licenses and flights to most major Cuban cities. Biden has not reversed those moves.
The caravan coincided with a march that started in Miami and will go to Washington D.C., where Cuban Americans will demand the Biden administration end the U.S. blockade, allowing them to visit their families and send remittances to Cuba. It also aligns with the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks, the beginning of the revolution led by Fidel Castro to overthrow Fulgencio Batista’s regime, which was on July 26, 1953.
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“The caravan will be playing audio of speeches given by Castro, which will start at the Domes and have speakers such as Tony Baez, and a representative from Voces de la Frontera,” Lind said in advance of the rally.
