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Why do Cuban women support the Revolution so firmly?

                                                                       

Cuban women support the Revolution sofirmly, so enthusiastically, so loyally… because it is a revolution that means double liberation for women. Women are a part of the country’s most humble sectors… women face discrimination not only as workers, but as women, as well

 
Photo: Granma Archives Endrys Correa

I told a compañero that this phenomenon of women in the Revolution was a revolution within another revolution. And if we were asked: what is the most revolutionary thing that the Revolution is doing, we would answer that the most revolutionary thing the Revolution is doing is precisely this; that is, the revolution that is taking place within the women of our country. If we were asked: what are the things that have taught us the most in the Revolution, we would answer that one of the most interesting lessons that revolutionaries are receiving in the Revolution is the lesson that women are giving us. (…)
What is occurring to us, in reality, is that this potential force is superior to what the most optimistic of us could have ever imagined. And that is why we said that, maybe in the background, unconsciously, unconsciously there was some prejudice, or there was some underestimation, since reality is demonstrating, just beginning to march along this path, all the possibilities and all the roles women can play in a revolutionary process (…)
If women believe that their situation within society is optimal, if women believe that the revolution’s function, its revolutionary function within society, has been fulfilled, they would be mistaken.
It seems to us that women must still struggle a great deal, that women must work hard to reach the place they should really occupy (…)
If women in our country were doubly exploited, doubly humiliated, that means simply that, in a social revolution, women must be doubly revolutionary.

Continue reading Why do Cuban women support the Revolution so firmly?

Cuban Foreign Ministry denounces escalating U.S. hostility

Cuban Foreign Ministry denounces escalating U.S. hostility
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects, in the strongest terms, the new escalation in aggressive U.S. behavior toward Cuba through the Helms-Burton Act

Author: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba | informacion@granmai.cu
march 5, 2019 09:03:03

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Photo: Internet

The U.S. State Department announced today the decision to allow, as of March 19 this year, the filing of lawsuits before U.S. courts under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act only against Cuban companies included on the List of Restricted Entities issued by that government in November of 2017, which was updated one year later. This arbitrary and illegitimate list, intended to tighten the blockade and expand its extraterritorial effects, forbids U.S. citizens from engaging in direct financial transactions with the aforementioned entities.
The announcement made by the U.S. State Department also indicated that it would suspend for only 30 days the option of initiating legal action with the same purposes against other Cuban entities or foreign companies which maintain commercial or economic relations with Cuba.
Since its entry into effect in 1996, the Helms-Burton Act has sought to universalize the economic blockade through brutal and illegal pressures exerted by the United States against third countries, their governments, and companies. It is intended to asphyxiate the Cuban economy, and generate or increase shortages among the population with the purpose of imposing in Cuba a government that serves the interests of the U.S.
Given the illegitimate character of the goals they pursue, which are contrary to international law, the Helms-Burton Act and the blockade arouse universal rejection, which has been reiterated for almost three decades within the most important regional and international fora. The most recent example of this was the United Nations General Assembly meeting held on November 1, when this policy was rejected in 10 consecutive votes, thus leaving the U.S. icompletely isolated.
Title II of the Helms-Burton Act states that the overthrowing of the revolutionary government, the subsequent tutelage by a U.S. intervenor and the subsequent establishment of a counterrevolutionary government subordinate to Washington, that would no doubt pursue the return to, or compensation for, former owners of all properties they or their descendants might claim, regardless of whether or not they were U.S. citizens at the time the nationalizations took place, or the fact that they abandoned the property. During this entire period, the economic blockade would continue to be fully implemented.
Consequently, Cubans would be forced to return, reimburse or pay U.S. claimants for the house in which they live, the area on which their communities are built, the arable land where they cultivate produce, the school where their children are educated, the hospital or polyclinic where they receive medical assistance, the place where their workplace is located or where they have a private business, and also sites used to provide subsidized services such as electricity, water, and communications enjoyed by the population.
This is an aspiration that can only be conceived by the minds of those who identify Cuba as a colonial possession. According to the Helms-Burton Act, the economic blockade would be lifted only when that ambition is fulfilled.
This law relies on two fundamental lies: the notion that nationalizations carried out soon after the triumph of the Revolutionary were illegitimate or inappropriate, and that Cuba is a threat to the U.S. national security.
Cuban nationalizations were carried out in accordance with the law, strictly abiding by the Constitution and in accordance with international law. All nationalizations included processes of fair and appropriate compensation, something that the U.S. government refused to consider. Cuba reached and honored global compensation agreements with other nations which are today investing in Cuba, such as Spain, Switzerland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
The real threat to regional peace and security are the irresponsible declarations and actions of the U.S. government as well as the destabilization plans aimed at Latin America and the Caribbean, pursuing the express purpose of imposing the Monroe Doctrine.
The Reaffirmation of Cuban Dignity and Sovereignty Act of December 24, 1996, states that the Helms-Burton Act is illegal, inapplicable, and has no legal value or effect whatsoever. It considers null and void any claim under that law by any individual or legal entity.
According to that law, claims for compensation for nationalized properties could be part of a process of negotiation on the based on equality and mutual respect between the governments of Cuba and the United States, and be “reviewed together with the indemnifications the Cuban state and people are entitled to as a result of the damages caused by the blockade and aggressions of every sort, for which the U.S. government is responsible”. It also makes it clear that those who resort to procedures or mechanisms under the Helms-Burton Act, to the detriment of others, will be excluded from possible future negotiations.
The Cuban Government reiterates to all economic partners and foreign companies operating in Cuba that full guarantees will be granted to foreign investments and joint projects. Article 28 of the Cuban Constitution, which was ratified by an overwhelming majority on February 24, 2019, also recognizes these guarantees, which are additionally included in Law No. 118 on Foreign Investment of March 29, 2014.
Today’s decision imposes additional obstacles to our economic development and progress goals, but the United States will continue to fail to achieve its main objective of suppressing by force the sovereign will of Cubans and our determination to build socialism. The majority opinion of the peoples of Cuba and the United States, in favor of improved relations, and the development of civilized, respectful coexistence, will prevail.

 

 

A revolution within the Revolution

A revolution within the Revolution
The 60-year path of emancipation Cuban women has taken bears the imprint of Vilma, the militant fighter, the dreamer of the future, who led the struggle along an ever ascending course: that of a Revolution with a vocation for justice, with noble leaders like Fidel and Raúl who always understood the importance of women being protagonists. Beginning today is the 10th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
march 6, 2019 09:03:07

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Photo: Liborio Noval
Dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the initiation of Cuba’s independence struggle; the 60th of the Cuban Revolution; Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz; Vilma Espín; and all young Cuban women, beginning today is the 10th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), with 360 delegates and 40 guests on hand.
Scheduled today are four commission meetings, to be held in different institutions around the city, in which the role of the organization and its mobilizing role will be analyzed in the context of the updating of Cuba’s economic model; gender equality in the family and society; youth as a guarantee of the FMC’s continuity; and the organization’s internal functioning.
The venues for this first day of the Congress are the Ministry of Agriculture; the Revolutionary Martyrs of Tarara National Police Academy; the University of Havana Event Center; the Center for Engineering and Biotechnology; and the Party’s Ñico López School.
March 7-8, plenary sessions will take place in Havana’s International Convention Center.
Among activities that took place prior to the Congress included the inauguration of social works, photographic exhibitions dedicated to women, political-cultural galas, and the granting of awards to outstanding workers.

Idolka Sánchez, the militia face immortalized by Korda’s lens in 1962

Korda’s militia woman
The story of Idolka Sánchez, the militia face immortalized by Korda’s lens in 1962, one of the millions of women protagonists of the Cuban Revolution

Author: Alejandra García | internet@granma.cu
march 6, 2019 13:03:06

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La Miliciana. Photo: Korda, Alberto
Among the crowd that May Day, 1962, a young photographer focused on the adolescent face of Idolka Sánchez, as she marched in front of the José Martí Memorial in Havana.

One of the almost 2,000 members of the Lidia Doce women’s militia battalion, Idolka saw him approach, camera in hand. He appeared as if hell bent on photographing her, as if he had seen her from a distance and couldn’t let her escape his lens. He had chosen her.

“Lift up the machine gun!” the man she had barely heard of ordered. This was the same photographer who, in March 1960, had immortalized Che’s face, hair blowing in the wind, during the funeral of the victims of the terrorist attack on the La Coubre steamship. The order was followed by several clicks of his camera and, in a matter of seconds, Korda had disappeared.

Idolka had already forgotten the incident when the photographer reappeared, that same morning. Korda wanted to take two more shots of her. He didn’t just want to capture a face or an image. He was seeking a symbol, and he found it. The following day, the photo was seen across the island, on the front page of the newspaper Revolución. Continue reading Idolka Sánchez, the militia face immortalized by Korda’s lens in 1962