While we wait for Kent to explain the "Friends" position on the blockade, next month the UN general assembly will, once again, vote on Cuba's resolution to lift the blockade. It will be exactly 40 years since the beginning of the blockade. In October 1960, in an attempt to "quarantine" Cuba, the Eisenhower administration banned US exports to Cuba. A few months later, the US severed its diplomatic relations with the island. The event that precipitated this attack on Cuban independence was, of course, the Cuban revolution. By March 1960, Eisenhower had approved a plan of covert action and economic sabotage against Cuba to prevent Cuba receiving loans and credits from western Europe and Canada.
The blockade still impacts on the lives of every Cuban to this day. The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly condemned the US blockade and called for it to be lifted every year since 1992. Last year 157 countries voted for the blockade to be lifted, and only two countries- the US and Israel - voted for the blockade to continue.
Thousands of people, from around the world, are now calling for an end to the blockade. In the UK, a resolution condemning the blockade was passed unanimously by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which represents 6 million workers in Britian. The TUC resolution noted that "Cuba's independence has been subjected to sustained attack by successive US governments for 40 years - the most severe and sustained blockade ever imposed on any country in peacetime".
Imagine what it is like to live in a small country where every aspect of life - including food, medicine, libraries, information, publishing, education and literacy - is affected by a blockade by the world's most powerful country. The prestigious American Association of World Health has said that :
"The blockade has caused a significant rise in suffering - and even deaths - in Cuba through lack of vital medicines".
* "The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies".
"In general, the blockade effectively bans Cuba from buying nearly half the new world-class drugs on the market"
"Cuban children with leukaemia are denied access to new, life-prolonging drugs, while Cuban women are denied access to new US medications that treat breast cancer, the biggest killer of women worldwide"
"Sufferers from the Aids virus are unable to get crucial medicines"
World leaders and many thousands of people have condemned the US blockade of Cuba all over the world. Twenty five thousand people in Britain have signed up to the 40 Years of Independence Campaign to end the blockade. By the time of the UN general assembly vote on Cuba's resolution next month, many more people will have added their name to this independence campaign.
You can add your name to the campaign by sending an e-mail to maureenfoster@cuba-solidarity.org.uk, stating : Yes, I want to sign up for the Cuba - 40 Years of Independence campaign. Please state your name, address and contact telephone number.
If Kent and his "Friends of Cuban Libraries" (sic) really are concerned with intellectual freedom issues, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they will also sign up for the Cuba - 40 Years of Independence campaign. If Kent does not sign up, and does not condemn the blockade, we need to know why not - or we will be forced to reach our own conclusions.
For more information about the Cuban Libraries Support Group, contact John Pateman at John.Pateman@merton.gov.uk
John Pateman is a member of the Society of Chief Librarians and has visited Cuban libraries in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2000.
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Last updated 11/12/2000
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