The truth on the other hand, is the unshakable reality that has driven every sanction, every sabotage attempt, and every assassination plot since 1959: Cuba is a threat only to an idea. It is a threat to the imperial doctrine that a small, poor nation in America’s ‘backyard’ must not be allowed to choose socialism, to provide free healthcare and education, and homes to live without the permission of Washington. For this sin of self-determination, the crime of building a society where capital is not god, Cuba has been punished with the most enduring economic siege in modern history. This is not an ‘embargo’, which I consider to be a sterile, political term. It is a total blockade, designed to constrict and cripple. It is enforced by a plethora of laws with names like the Helms-Burton Act, which terrorises foreign companies from trading with the Island and allows the US to seize ships in international waters. Its goal, as US politician Robert Torricelli once admitted, was to… ‘Wreak havoc’.

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[–] 83 points 8 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 58 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    "People in socialist countries starve because we starve them"

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  • [–] 43 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I hope and pray that the Cuban people stand together and persevere. May this be the final nail in the empire of evil.

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  • [–] 37 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    The fact that there has not been a unified Latin American defence coalition against the US formed is crazy to me. Us in the USA want (and more desperately need) liberation from our leadership.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Wanting and having the will to do what needs doing are different things.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    The fact that there has not been a unified Latin American defence coalition against the US formed is crazy to me.

    There has been one. It's just composed of imperial powers and their corporate proxies.

    The defense coalition existed to intercede against slave revolts, anti-colonial nationalism, and Communist uprisings. It has been very successful.

    Us in the USA want (and more desperately need) liberation from our leadership.

    Join the club

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  • [–] 35 points 8 months ago

    I had no problem with Cuba. Nice place to visit in winter. No Americans.

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  • [–] 32 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I think, based on conversations I have with people in real life and read online, that the people in the US haven't challenged the 60 years of propaganda about Cuba, and believe it a totalitarian nightmare dictatorship.

    I have a close friend who went to Cuba for ecological research (did you know they still have intact reefs) a few years ago, and when they would tell people they were going to Cuba, the most common reaction was a fearful "that's scary" and a confused, almost accusatory "why".

    I don't think they realize that everyone else can just go to Cuba, it's only the blue US passport and a bunch of old white guys, and probably now more Cuban Americans, with their fear of communism and land reform stopping them from enjoying a very nice bottle of state owned rum and an experience of how other people live.

    I'm glad other countries have been stepping up to help the people there, the Cuban people deserve happy and comfortable lives, and we clearly don't have the appetite to stop starving them of that right now. Until we shake that propagandized view, I don't imagine that will change either.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Obama I think floated an end to the shitbaggery during his second term. Like anything he proposed, it was stonewalled.

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  • [–] [S] 13 points 8 months ago

    I think he actually lifted the travel embargo and aimed to normalize relations but the bazillionaires and still angry exbazillionaire diaspora faces started melting so 2016 was the end of that.

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  • [–] 62 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    And because all of this shit they have been throwing on the Cuba, they can claim socialism doesn’t work.

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  • [–] 58 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    It is essentially genocide.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    I don't agree on this, but I do think it's shaping up rapidly to become one. We will see in a couple of months, but any tropical cyclone or natural phenomena has a huge destructive potential in Cuba right now.

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  • [+] -34 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I don't know about that. Genocides don't usually take 80 years, as the population grows. I don't think that fits the description.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    Time period is irrelevant.

    Intentionally disrupting a countries ability to prosper and sustain itself with the end goal being loss of lives of those citizens is still genocide.

    Bombs or starving. Doesn't matter the method.

    Killing off civilians of a state is genocide.

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  • [–] 27 points 8 months ago

    Ebough damage has been done in these last decades. This is dangerously becoming a full blown USA genocide of the Cuban people. It's unacceptable.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago

    For those who say it's a hoax, look up videos of any Cuban on YouTube and turn on the subtitles.

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago

    America: ill do it again

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago

    What the US is doing right now? It goes further back...

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    Worse than what Israel is doing to Palestine?

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  • [–] 32 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Not yet, but it's a similar action with a similar goal

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    No? That's a weird deflection from the misery of a people, to point at other miserable people and imply, look they're worse off so we can ignore everyone else. Or are you just lost, read a different piece, and replied to the wrong thing.

    What you're doing sure looks like deflection using whataboutism, but why deflect something you're not at fault for? You don't have to help the US government defend their actions.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    How the USA destroyed Cuba with economic sanctions

    https://youtu.be/zIOw6fSOJI4

    did you know that, during the Covid pandemic, the usa refused to allow countries to sell respirator parts to Cuba? Hundreds died choking on their own bile, meanwhile Cuban doctors traveled the world administer free vaccines to poor countries.

    https://pca.st/episode/b9afd925-9da1-48c9-a227-d9186df15dc5

    https://pca.st/episode/44db48f6-45f7-4d79-92a0-6ad596da8c6b

    https://pca.st/episode/6e3f6be7-a968-4126-83ab-9dbb68278628

    How the Cuban communist government changed their entire food system overnight because of sanctions

    https://pca.st/episode/0b790d39-e5c7-4d9c-9633-b58690596178

    How Britain plotted to spread homophobia in Cuba

    https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-plotted-to-spread-homophobia-in-cuba/

    Here's a REAL Cuban telling you what trump has done/doing

    https://pca.st/episode/5b53a084-d12e-4e76-ad85-7d4820fedbc8

    Hasan on Cuba

    https://youtu.be/krpC2WzXUkY

    A Cuban, on Cuba: https://peertube.world/w/eh7KeUBRpKVWjfBfFRh1qU

    All of American media is a psyop designed to give well meaning people an excuse to do immeasurable harm via the american military

    https://youtu.be/gvxJVyvEbv0

    https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/stand-with-cuba-against-the-state-sponsors-of-terrorism-list-w-calla-walsh-jorge-rocha

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  • [+] -7 points 8 months ago (15 children)
  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    The "holodomor" is Nazi Banderite propaganda. There was a famine in an area that was prone to famine for centuries prior. It was not targeted at Ukraine, it also affected Kazakhstan and western Russia. It was also the last time they had a famine.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    They had one more after WW2 but this one is never mentioned in western media because "nazis deliberately causing starvation by destroying half of USSR agriculture and murdering millions of Ukrainians, Belarussians and Russians" is going against western narrations.

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  • [+] 1 point 8 months ago* (10 children)
  • [–] -2 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    yeah they had a famine in the soviet union, but the ukranians starved to death in millions

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  • [+] 6 points 8 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] -2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    yeah there was no way to deliver food there, especially not from foreign countries that offered aid. also not possible to let people leave

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  • [+] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    so they decided the potential industrial progress was worth however many deaths in the ukranian region
    not someone i would like to associate with
    also, it is a useless thought exercise, but would they have been crushed by the nazis? in the end, it was the winter that they didn't prepare adequately for, plus the usa sent a bunch of equipment over, maybe they'd have sent more, if needed

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (3 children)

    so?
    Want to blame the evil RuZZians for it like those Banderite nazis do bcs they got their ass kicked? LOL

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    who else was leading the soviet union? who exported the food out of ukraine? much like in the irish famine?

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    You have zero knowledge how the SU even worked.
    Where do you think Chruchov came from? The clown who gave Russian Crimea to that temporary anomaly.
    IDC what you and your nazi friends imagine happened, it's BS.
    Grasping at straws to justify their Russophobia and blatant fascism.
    For everyone to see, even today.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago

    You have zero knowledge how the SU even worked.

    not quite zero, but i'll admit, i'm not super knowledgeable

    Where do you think Chruchov came from? The clown who gave Russian Crimea to that temporary anomaly.

    does it matter? did the ukranian people do it to themselves if that guy was from there originally?
    did/does it help the georgians that stalin was from there?

    Grasping at straws to justify their Russophobia and blatant fascism.

    russians keep serving pretty thick and sturdy straws
    also, til, criticising the soviet union/russia is fascism

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  • [+] -28 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    I don't understand why I have to see this posted multiple times when I've blocked the poster over and over.

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    [+] -20 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The sanctions really should have ended when Castro died at the latest, but I still won't call Cuba a socialist country. It's a communist one. It's under a high amount of control. You'll get thrown in prison for criticism, internet access is limited, and not everyone is on an equal footing there. Communist or not, the sanctions are still completely bullshit.

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    [+] -26 points 8 months ago* (34 children)

    If I were a super perfect president of the United States, I would ask Cuba if they want to join the Union, with all rights and benefits that goes with being a State. This offer also would be extended to territories like Puerto Rico.

    IMO, Cuba and other island States have a special potential - as places to try out UBI, universal healthcare, free education at all levels, and other reforms, that can't be easily implemented in isolation* on the mainland.

    *Specifically, I want to try different variations of implementation, to find the best 'recipe' for an improved democratic socialism. Islands are good for A/B/C testing, I wager.

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  • [–] 35 points 8 months ago (17 children)

    Even an Americans self fulfillment fantasy of being the bestest us president that ever was involves the annexation of Cuba. You guys got a problem.

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  • [+] -20 points 8 months ago (16 children)

    I said "offer to join the union". If rejected, then America should simply end embargoes and all of that crap. In any case, I suspect you have an issue, because you don't want Cuba to have opportunities of any kind. People are being hurt on Cuba, because they have been denied prosperity by selfish dickheads who can't think of a better future.

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  • [–] 26 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    Your comments here are soaked in US chauvinism.

    Cuba is already sovereign. It does not need to be “invited” into the empire that has spent over 60 years trying to strangle it. Treating another nation as a potential US “state” or “test lab” is naked colonial thinking.

    Also calling the islands places for “A/B testing” social policy is grotesque. You’re talking about real people, not sandbox populations. Cuba already guarantees universal healthcare, free education at all levels, housing rights, and food subsidies despite being under one of the longest economic sieges in modern history. The US can’t even provide those basics to its own working class.

    The blockade isn’t some abstract policy disagreement. It blocks fuel, medicine, banking access, shipping insurance, medical equipment, and even disaster relief. It’s collective punishment imposed by the United States. Every year almost the entire world votes at the UN to end it. Washington ignores them.

    To add to this Puerto Rico is not some inspiring example of US “opportunity.” Puerto Rico is a US colony with no voting representation in Congress, crushed by debt, austerity, and privatization imposed by Washington. If that’s your model, it’s an indictment of your beliefs.

    And finally Cuba does not need Amerikkkans to teach it socialism. Cuba built a functioning public health system, biotech sector, disaster response model, and mass literacy campaign while under siege something the US ruling class hasn't even properly accomplished for its own despite ruling most of the world with a bloodied iron fist.

    If you actually cared about Cubans, you'd drop the annexation fantasies. Your grotesque idea of “testing grounds.” and ridiculous imperial “offers.”

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  • [+] -18 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    I have a feeling that your hypernationalism isn't to help people, but rather to lash out at the United States. You don't look any different from the Republicans in my nation.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    You're completely lost. If I were to guess, you're getting some kind of benefit from psychologically transferring qualities that you see in America to yourself, and then taking criticism of America as a personal threat. Since we're analyzing each other.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Where have I ever been hyper nationalist or even nationalist at all? You just don't want to contend with the fact that you're pro imperialism and colonialism and an outright chauvinist as long as it has good pr.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    you people are deluded.
    No different than some missionary biblethumper peddling his poison thinking he has something great to offer.
    your union can get fucked.
    Build a wall around it, stay behind it and leave the world alone.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Oh, so just like how trump offered Canada and Greenland to join the union. Get you some of that self awareness mate

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  • [+] -9 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    My thought process is very different from the Orange Man, thank you very much. While I obviously would have to ask experts in this hypothetical scenario about what resources former territories and Cuba would need, my focus is three things:

    1: Allow these lands to become prosperous for their people's benefit. This is regardless of whether they become part of the Union as States, or as independent countries. People should live a decent life. Either way, mutual trade is a keystone.

    2: Try out different structures of authority for resources and services in each different socialist State. Boring but important stuff, like how many departments are needed to distribute resources, checks and balances, anti-corruption measures, ect. Assuming a presidency of two terms, it is only 8 precious years to figure out a good way forward. Thus, A/B/C testing.

    3: If a good model of practical social democracy is developed, try to spread it, and standardize the socialism for the testing States.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Jesus fuck, read the room. NO COUNTRY WANTS THAT.

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  • [+] -18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    How does your position help Cuba?

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago

    By not making it an imperialist conquest by a dying empire. It helps by not dragging Cuba down. It helps by letting Cuba dictate it's own fate, and not by a bunch of feudalist technocrats. It helps by not having to have Cubans eat the psychic damage caused by become complicit with an evil regime that's ok with committing genocide if it makes a rich asshole slightly richer. It helps by not having it be ruled by a narcissistic psychopathic pudding brained man-baby, who believes he is the smartest person in the world, but is so incompetent at everything, he could fuck up a cheese sandwich.

    Jesus fuck... why would anyone want to join that shithole.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago*

    "Your position?" Dude. My position is that suggesting annexation of Cuba is incredibly tone deaf and generally offensive. My position isn't meant to directly help or harm Cuba, it's meant to protect objectivity, which of course helps all good faith actors.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    *Specifically, I want to try different variations of implementation, to find the best ‘recipe’ for an improved democratic socialism. Islands are good for A/B/C testing, I wager.

    Dr. Mengele joins the DSA.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

    I would ask Cuba if they want to join the Union, with all rights and benefits that goes with being a State.

    And if they say no you'll definitely leave them alone after that right?

    Also, who do you think Cuba broke free from.

    IMO, Cuba and other island States have a special potential - as places to try out UBI, universal healthcare, free education at all levels, and other reforms, that can’t be easily implemented in isolation* on the mainland.

    *Specifically, I want to try different variations of implementation, to find the best ‘recipe’ for an improved democratic socialism. Islands are good for A/B/C testing, I wager.

    "Latino island dwellers are the perfect guina pigs for me to test my half baked ideas to avoid inconveniencing white people when they fail spectacularly"

    Cuba is already democratic socialist. And it's working very well in spite of how much effort the richest country in the world puts into killing it.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Cuba is already democratic socialist. And it’s working very well in spite of how much effort the richest country in the world puts into killing it.

    it's impressive that they've lasted this long

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