BY JACQUES SALFATI
The following are reports on demonstrations organized in several imperialist countries to protest the U.S. economic war against Cuba.
BY JACQUES SALFATI
PARIS - Rallies were held October 7 in several French cities to protest the economic warfare which the United States has been waging against the Cuban revolution. The national day of action against the embargo was called at the initiative of France-Cuba, the principle Cuba solidarity association in this country. The actions were in response to the decisions made at an international solidarity conference held in Havana in November 1994.
Rallies were held in Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, and Marseilles. They were supported by various Cuba solidarity associations as well as by the CGT and the SNES-FSU trade union confederations, teachers unions, the French Communist Party and the Movement of Communist Youth of France, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), and the Communist Organizing Committee.
Rallies were held in front of the U.S. embassy in Paris and at U.S. consulates in the other cities. Five hundred demonstrators rallied in Paris with banners denouncing the blockade and the Helms-Burton bill, currently debated in U.S. Congress. This proposed legislation aims to significantly tighten Washington's embargo of the island. André Lajoinie represented the French Communist Party at the Paris rally and Alain Krivine spoke for the LCR. It was an unusually sunny day in Paris and a loudspeaker truck playing Cuban music and selling drinks gave the event a festive atmosphere.
A number of the participants had recently attended the "Cuba Vive" youth festival held in Havana this summer.
BY EUGEN LEPOU
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Some 25 people picketed the US consulate here on October 10 to protest the 36-year-old economic blockade of Cuba, in particular a recent effort by Washington to tighten the blockade when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Helms-Burton Bill.
James Robb, the Communist League candidate for mayor of Auckland, addressed the pickets. He was a participant in the "Cuba Lives" festival that took place in Havana, Cuba, in August of this year. Robb explained; "They say that the Cuban revolution is dying but while I was in Cuba I participated in a half-a-million strong march in support of the revolution. If the revolution is dying why is Washington tightening the blockade around this country? It's because they realize that rather than the revolution becoming weaker it has proven its strength in recent times."
Some weeks before the picket, the Cuban Consul General to Australia, Marcellino Fajardo, addressed a public meeting in Auckland on October 1. Fajardo announced the visit of Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina to New Zealand scheduled for the first week of December. Robaina will visit Australia and New Zealand to meet with government officials of the two countries for trade talks.
Organizers of the picket encouraged participants at the protest to get out the word of Robaina's visit as broadly as possible and invited the picketers to get involved in helping to build any public activities that may be held for Robaina while he is in New Zealand.
BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN
ATHENS, Greece - On October 16 nearly 300 people marched to the U.S. embassy in Athens and rallied outside the compound to oppose the Washington's embargo on Cuba. People chanted, "Hands off Cuba," "Cuba sí, Yankee no," and "The blockade will be broken by the people's struggle." The march and rally were called by the Greek-Cuba Friendship Society and supported by other groups, including the General Federation of Labor.
Jacques Salfati is an autoworker and member of the CGT in Paris; Eugen Lepou is a member of the United Food, Beverage and General workers union in Auckland, New Zealand.