We are the Communist Party of Maine. We are affiliated with the Communist Party USA. We struggle for socialism and democracy and against capitalism and fascism. Capitalism creates the economic, social, cultural and environmental crises that are killing us. More and more people understand this. Socialism is more urgently needed today than ever before!
The Communist Party of Maine aims to work with others to advance the interests of all people who desire a better world through collective struggle and organization: A world where the environment is protected, where peace and nuclear disarmament reign, where the working class majority thrives, where Black lives matter, and where women and children are safe from predatory political and interpersonal violence, where Animal Rights are recognized and respected. In a word, a socialist world.
Editorial, 1/02/2021
Confronting and Ending the US Blockade against Cuba, by Tom Whitney
The U.S. economic blockade against Cuba receives little mention in U. S. news reports. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry every year prepares a report for the United Nations on the blockade’s adverse effects. The most recent report overflows with evidence of harm visited upon the Cuban people and damage done to the island’s economy and economic development. Its authors refer to “the longest-lasting trade embargo in modern history.”
It’s lasted for 60 years. That’s long: five more 60-year chunks of time go back to the era of the Puritans’ arrival in Boston. Meanwhile, “Cuba bashing is like ordering pizza; … cheap and easy and everyone likes you for it” – in the words of Cuba analyst and lawyer José Pertierra.
Here we try to account for the blockade’s long life and propose a new approach toward ending it.
Anti-blockade activists have generally operated on the assumption that if public and elected officials actually understood the horrors of the blockade, they would come together and finish it off. The blockade, it’s been variously pointed out, is illegal, cruel, immoral, bad for U.S. businesses wanting to sell to Cuba, bad for potential U.S. importers, bad for U.S. tourists, and bad for U.S. fans of Cuban culture, music, and sports. Yet no large, sustained protest movement has materialized.
Fundamentally, it seems, blockade opponents have never confronted the reality of powerful forces mobilized against them. Masters of the blockade, with the machinery of government at their disposal, enjoy free rein. Well-crafted blockade regulations are in force. And the resistance movement is small; its leadership, divided.
Too many dedicated activists apparently rely on what looks like magical thinking, the assumption that if something ought to happen, it will happen. It’s a fantasy politics which New York Times columnist Ross Douthat (December 13) characterizes as “dreampolitik.” Currently, for example, Trump die-hards insist, despite the facts, that he won the presidency and that President-elect Biden has socialist leanings or enables socialists or communists.
Two other factors are crucial. One: many members of the public, sympathetic though they may be, are not yet prepared to weigh in on ending the blockade. Tending to associate social radicalism with societal destabilization, they hold Cuba at arm’s length.
Another is the legacy of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which, among other nefarious provisions, gives Congress sole responsibility for changing blockade regulations, specifically for closing it down.
There are those who say that, because the blockade hasn’t worked to cause regime change, it must go. They don’t realize that the blockade is programmed to last exactly as long as the revolutionary government lasts. “But you must “keep the foot on the snake, don’t let up.” That was New Jersey congressman Robert Torricelli’s advice in 1992 as he introduced new blockade legislation.
The foundational purpose of the blockade has been to inflict suffering and distress upon the Cuban people and that way prod them into overthrowing their government. The blockade serves as one of many U.S. tools for protecting global capitalism and maintaining U.S. hegemony abroad. And there is bonus value. Its existence cements the loyalty of the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan exile communities to rightwing candidates in U.S. elections.
Nothing has emerged to induce the U.S. government to stop what it is doing, either because of new strategizing on its part or in reaction to what the opposition has done. We require a new way of resisting. Struggle against the blockade takes place now as a single issue, walled off from other good causes. It’s a side show in the three-ring circus of U.S. politics.
However, if efforts to end the blockade were included in a multi-faceted program of progressive change, and if the fight proceeded on those terms, then the odds of finishing off the blockade would surely improve. An anti-capitalist or left-leaning political party would be leading the charge. The blockade, after all, exists to shore up capitalism.
Packaging a demand in class-struggle wrapping did the trick in bringing about universally available healthcare. Following World War II every industrialized capitalist country in the world, except one, established some kind of care system for all people. A socialist political party, labor party, or strong union movement was operating in all such countries, except the United States. That’s the one country that does not allow for universally available healthcare. Its labor unions are weak and there’s no socialist party competing in elections.
Cuba’s COVID-19 Vaccines Serve the People, Not Profits, by Tom Whitney
Cuba’s socialist approach to developing vaccines against COVID-19 differs strikingly from that of capitalist nations of the world. Cuba’s production of four vaccines is grounded in science and dedicated to saving the lives of all Cubans, and to international solidarity. The New York Times’s running report on the world’s vaccine programs shows 67 vaccines havingContinue reading “Cuba’s COVID-19 Vaccines Serve the People, Not Profits, by Tom Whitney”
To Normalize US-Cuban Relations, Restore Working Embassies, by Tom Whitney
The new Biden administration may soon ease regulations enforcing the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. However, if Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s new bill, the U.S.-Cuba Trade Act of 2021, becomes law, the blockade itself will disappear. Meanwhile, the two countries’ embassies in Havana and Washington are dysfunctional. No normal relations will obtain until they areContinue reading “To Normalize US-Cuban Relations, Restore Working Embassies, by Tom Whitney”
UN Report Condemns US Economic Sanctions against Venezuela, by Tom Whitney
Belarusian lawyer and academician Alena Douhan, who in 2020 became the United Nations “Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures,” visited Venezuela on February 1-12. She was there “to assess the impact of unilateral [U. S.] sanctions on the enjoyment of human rights.” At her press conference on the last day,Continue reading “UN Report Condemns US Economic Sanctions against Venezuela, by Tom Whitney”
With COVID controlled and economy growing, Vietnam’s Communists plan for future, by Amiad Horowitz
From People’s World HANOI—With only 35 recorded deaths, Vietnam has managed the coronavirus pandemic better than almost any other country on earth. And, unlike other nations, where mass unemployment and recession are the norm, Vietnam’s economy is actually growing. That’s the context in which the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)Continue reading “With COVID controlled and economy growing, Vietnam’s Communists plan for future, by Amiad Horowitz”
Sometimes Marx’s Capital Is a Pillow, Sometimes It Obliges Us to Deepen Our Struggles: The Seventh Newsletter (2021), from Vijay Prashad
Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. In 1911, a young Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) arrived in France, which had colonised his homeland of Vietnam. Though he had been raised with a patriotic spirit committed to anti-colonialism, Ho Chi Minh’s temperament did not allow him to retreat into aContinue reading “Sometimes Marx’s Capital Is a Pillow, Sometimes It Obliges Us to Deepen Our Struggles: The Seventh Newsletter (2021), from Vijay Prashad”
Letter to End the US Embargo against Cuba, from Tom Whitney
Dear Comrades, I write you on behalf of an ad hoc group of Maine people identifying themselves “Maine Citizens Opposed to the US Embargo against Cuba.” We are asking you to add your name to the letter appearing below to the two Maine senators. Now is a crucial time. There is a chance now –Continue reading “Letter to End the US Embargo against Cuba, from Tom Whitney”
American fascism is a deadly threat – it must be confronted now, by Paul Mason
The US could yet fall apart under the strain of its structural racism and the dysfunctionality of its capitalism. NewStatesman, 13 January 2021 Like grease from an old stove, the Nazis of the US are suddenly getting scoured off social media. Donald Trump’s Twitter account is gone. Parler has been scrubbed from the Amazon servers. We can beContinue reading “American fascism is a deadly threat – it must be confronted now, by Paul Mason”
The Progressive International denies the false and malicious information published by the Colombian magazine Semana, from the Progressive International
The Progressive International denies the false and malicious information published by the Colombian magazine regarding an alleged link between the Progressive International and the ELN guerrilla in Colombia. The Progressive International denies the false and malicious information published by the Colombian magazine Semana and reproduced in other media in Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina, regarding anContinue reading “The Progressive International denies the false and malicious information published by the Colombian magazine Semana, from the Progressive International”
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