Rev Left Radio - On Cuba and Haiti: The Fight for Liberation & Self-Determination in the Caribbean

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Musa Springer, Erica Caines, & Onyesonwu Chatoyer from Hood Communist join Breht O'Shea to discuss their participation in The Second International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Left Parties and Movements in Havana, Cuba before discussing the history and current events playing out in Haiti. Together they converse about their time in Cuba, the various speeches they gave at the event, the ongoing embargo and its impacts, recent protests in Cuba, internationalism, the Zone of Peace campaign by the Black Alliance for Peace, US imperialism, the history of colonialism in Haiti, current events in Haiti, how Haiti is portrayed by Western corporate media, and much more! Links: Hood Communist Blog Venceremos Brigade All-African People's Revolutionary Party (Florida) Liberation Through Reading Black Alliance for Peace (ATL) Join BAP Groundings Podcast  

Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. On today's episode, I have three editors from the Hood Communist blog on to talk about their recent trip to Cuba, talk about Cuban politics, talk about their activity in Cuba, their various organizations that they work with. And as well, we get into a conversation about Haiti, the current situation in Haiti, some summary details. about Haitian history, what the Haitian masses actually won and are asking for, pushing back against a lot of the lies that you hear from Western Imperial Corps media regarding the situation ongoing in Haiti, the sort of cartoonish way that these situations are framed and that's all corrected with these three wonderful representatives from primarily hood communists but also are involved with many other organizations, including, of course,

the Black Alliance for Peace. We have on today Musa, Erica, and Ones. Ye San Wu to talk about these really, really, really important topics, and all of them are doing really important organizational and political educational work that I personally am a fan of, that I admire deeply, that is a great example for anybody else in the United States or beyond who wants to get involved in various ways. And so this is a really important and wonderful conversation about ongoing situations that we all need to be made aware of, and we need to protect ourselves from the constant stream of nonsense propaganda that we are assaulted with daily when it comes particularly to countries that are

under the boot of or are an enemy in some way or another to the U.S. Empire. And so I couldn't ask for better guests to do just that. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Musa, Erica, Anya Sanwu from Hood Communist on Cuba, Haiti, and so much more. My name is Erica Keynes. I am the coordinating committee vice chair of the Black Alliance for Peace. I am also the co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace Haiti America's team and the Baltimore Citywide Alliance. I am co-editor of Hood Communists.

I am a member of Eugene and People's Progress Party in Maryland. and founder of Liberation Through Reading. Hey, y'all. Asalamu alaikum, Rahmatulah, and Ramadan Mubarak. My name is Mosa Springer. I'm a member of the Black Alliance for Peace, Atlanta, Citywide Alliance. I'm also the international youth representative for the Red Barial Afro Descendiente. And I'm one of the editors here at hoodcommunist.org.

And really excited to be in this conversation today. I'm a pass. It's a sister, O'Ne. Thanks. I'm Onysanu Rattoye. I am a central committee member of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party and the All-African Women's Revolutionary Union. I'm also a co-editor of Hood Communists, and I'm on the National Coordinating Committee of the Ben Sedemos Brigade, which is the oldest Cuba Solidary delegation in the U.S. Happy to be here. Absolutely, yeah. It's a pleasure and an honor to have all of you here. I've been a longtime fan of Hood Communists and everything. thing that that organization puts out. So it's very cool to have some of the editors on this episode today. And then of course today we're going to be talking about both Cuba and Haiti,

but we're going to sort of break it into half. So the first part of this conversation is going to be focused more on your experiences and the politics going on currently within Cuba, and then we'll move to what's happening currently and historically in Haiti. But the first question is the following. This past February, all of you participated in the second international meeting of theoretical publications of left parties and movements in Havana, Cuba. Can you talk about that event, what the goal was and what the main themes of discussion were? Yeah, absolutely. So we were actually invited to participate as hook communists by our comrades at ECAP, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People, as well as the Cuban Communist Party.

It was the first time that we had represented hook communists in an international space like that. So it was like a big step for us. It was quite an honor. And essentially, it was the second gathering of its kind. The first happened last year in 2023, and it was primarily attended by delegates representing revolutionary socialists and anti-imperalist parties and organizations across the world. So we met folks from Ireland who were hilarious, people from China, people from Russia, folks from Zimbabwe, Zanopje, Panama, Dominican Republic. So people from all over the world who came together in that space,

to develop a collective strategy for how to use our platforms to engage the struggle against imperialism, recognizing that mainstream news media, mainstream news platforms are controlled by the enemy, controlled by the ruling class, recognizing that they have a far greater reach than our individual organizational outlets. We recognize the need for coordination across borders, across political tendencies, to combat the massive reach of the enemy. And so that was really the focus of the conference

across political tendencies, cross borders, across organizations, developing a collective and coherent strategy for combating imperilist propaganda, but also like proactively sharing a revolutionary socialist and anti-imperalist narrative, lots of discussion about combating sectarianism, and dogmatism,

and also a big, big focus on solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation struggle. Erica, Musa, do you have anything to add to that? I think Onei did a wonderful job of summarizing it. Just, you know, one personal, I guess, reflection that all of us share, have talked about is, especially in this current political context of the genocide, as well as the liberation war being waged by the Palestinian resistance. and the blockade in Cuba, it was wonderful to be in a room of all of these media workers

and organizers from around the world who all agreed that imperialism is the primary objective and that we were all struggling against imperialism in all of our different localities. You know, it wasn't like what we often have to do in the U.S. among the left, where we have to even get to the point of all being united around being anti-imperialist. Because we arrived understanding anti-imperilism as a core kind of foundational principle of this meeting, we were able to move in a lot of unity and to really discuss the heart of the matter in, I think, a very productive way. I just wanted to add that. Wonderful. Well, zooming out a little bit, I'm just interested in your,

or sort of experiences in Cuba, just being there on the ground. Obviously, you're engaging with a lot of Cuban people and a lot of other organizations. But just the country as a whole, the state of the country, what were your experiences like in Cuba? And what stands out to you about your time there? Yeah, I love this question because even though we were at a conference, you know, we were certainly not divorced from the larger island around us and the people. And myself, I've traveled to Cuba many times. often with small group delegations.

O'Nei has traveled many times with the Vince Ramos Brigade, Erica, a few times with me as well. And I can say without any reservations that the blockade is the worst that I have personally ever seen it. Things like food shortages, oil and gas shortages are hitting the island really, really, really severely. You know, when we were walking around,

we would pass lines for the for the gas station and the cars would be piled up for maybe three or four blocks I spoke with somebody who said they had waited they literally had parked their car there for two nights and they would just leave their car and walk home and then come back the next morning and it hadn't moved at all and so the situation is dire something that stands out however is despite the humongous difficulties proposed by the blockade, the Communist Party and the organizers of this conference were able to fully accommodate us, were able to pull off a conference that featured, I think it was like 37 different countries, two or 300 people.

And it really took an immense example of people's power, of organization, of discipline as well. And so from, you know, from myself as an organizer in the U.S., that was definitely something that I noticed and learned was how they even just were able to put an event like that together. And then second, we had a bit of a delegation within the delegation where in some of our free time, I was able to help organize Enquintros between Onee, Erika, myself, another comrade, and my comrades in the Red Barial Afro Descendiente. We were able to distribute several suitcases

full of donations to them, as well as just have robust groundings where we talked with them about, you know, what grassroots organizing looks like in Cuba currently, how they're sustaining and surviving, and we got to build really strong connections there as well. And then additionally, I'll just say we have to see friends and loved ones in Cuba and have a good time, too. And it's a testament to the Cuban spirit.

I mean, they had every right in the world to see some people from the U.S. on the streets and be mad at us because it's the U.S. in our name that's causing these conditions. And instead, they showed us love and solidarity and brought us in to say this is how you can support our struggle. And that was the overall sentiment at the entire conference the whole time we were there as well. Erica? Yeah, I'd agree that that was the sentiment that was felt. This was my second time going to Cuba, both times in a delegation last year. I was able to go to help launch the Zone of Peace campaign with the Black Lions for Peace. And then I was here this year with her communists.

And in both experiences, I want to say, are slightly different, but the overall sentiment that Musa expressed remained the same. I got to see firsthand the effects of the blockade, which, you know, you can hear about, but it's a lot different when you're experiencing it. Being there, waiting for rides because of the long gas lines and the shortages, being in Matanzas during a blackout that lasted for hours. and then watching people, you know, carry on their everyday lives because it's such a normalized situation that while, you know, it's jarring for me to be in a blackout for hours, people are still in restaurants, people are still, you know, going about their day and continuing doing what they have to do. And then this time that I was here, I got to see it a little more, you know, in terms of when we went to, you know, to visit the Red Burial, the, it took them all day to, you know,

they cooked for us, obviously. And, you know, we all have dietary differences. And the fact that they went out of their way, like, it really was an all-day feat for them to find just chicken for us. was just one of the examples of it. But also to Moose's point, we were able to be, you know, in comradeship and solidarity with the Red. You know, we broke Red with them. I through my program, liberation through reading, was able to give books in the La Lisa neighborhood

where the Red is, a few of the members are. So it was a really great experience for myself. to be able to be amongst Afro-Cubans in one aspect, but then also be in an environment to Moosa's point where we all were already united under the understanding of anti-imperialism and the struggle against a primary contradiction of imperialism. And so just being in that kind of atmosphere

where the discussions and the speeches were riveting, but with the emphasis on unity, a strong emphasis on unity and yeah deeply enriching experiences in Cuba I would say beautiful. Anya? Yeah, definitely echoed, especially

the reflections about the delegation and the delegation to build with the Red Royale hearing about the grassroots organizing Africans are doing in coordination with the revolution, which is very, very different from how the African experience in Cuba is discussed in the United States. These were Africans who very clearly upheld support the Cuban

Revolution and understood their work within that context. But the other thing about the conference to what Erica just spoke about, like, the clarity and discipline with which the Cuban comrades, like, help develop and hold that space was really inspirational for me. I have typically traveled to Cuba with big delegations, the Van Samu's Brigade, we bring 75 to 100 to over 100 people to Cuba every year. And it's intentionally a very big tense because that is what the Cuban comrades ask of us to bring as many people to Cuba as possible, all different political tendencies. And the consequence of that is that sometimes people bring, like, the division in sectarianism that is endemic to the U.S. left into Cuba. So they're like anarchist, most of socialist beef or like different, different socialist organizations beave in.

Like they bring on the brigade and we have to like struggle through it. And every single time, and this is also reflected in the conference space, the Cubans are like, okay, we get it. you don't get along, get over it. We have to focus on the broader mission. We have to focus on the greater enemy of system of imperialism. So even in the conference space, when there were serious disagreements around Palestine, the Cubans were very clear in their position of like unconditional solidarity, the Palestinian national liberation,

but they were still calling for us to come together across that different and unite for the bigger purpose. And I feel like that is something that I take away every single time I engage with the Cubans. Like they are able to still attempt to normalize relations with the U.S. despite decades of antagonism because they want a world that's based on foundations of solidarity and peace and meanwhile in the left we're like oh you slightly disagree in this political tendency or you have a different position on this geopolitical issue you're dead to me and like the cubans will just not let us do that and so they appreciated that that in the conference and just every single time i interact with like cuban conference yeah no i think there's a a deep maturity among left wing movements in you know countries

that are victimized by the Imperial Corps that have these robust movements that have a long history of actually fighting. And I think sometimes in the imperial core, our bickering and our immaturity is really sort of a product of our impotence, of this fact that we're not in this struggle so we can obsess over, you know, who was better, Trotsky or Stalin or these sort of minutia, these abstractions that don't really matter. And there's also, of course, the immaturity that comes with the hyper individualism of American culture writ large. So, yeah, the maturity of real movements and real struggles for self-determination and liberation, I think, is something we absolutely can learn and must learn here inside the imperial core. And another thing

I just wanted to say before we move on to the next question is, you know, the whole world, much like, much like the whole world is overwhelmingly on the side of Palestine and the current conflict, U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution to end the embargo on Cuba is widely supported, almost, you know, completely throughout the global south and most of the rest of the world. And I think in recent sort of UN resolutions to end the embargo, it's like three countries are against it, the U.S., Ukraine, and Israel. And over and over and over again, should we end neo-Nazism, you know, it's America, Israel, and Ukraine that's against it. Should we call for a seat? fire in Gaza. It's like Israel and the U.S. that are against it. And I think that that is a sort of weakening of U.S. hegemony that is in a process of occurring and the whole world is really turning against the U.S. in a really interesting and I think hopeful way because ending U.S. hegemony is essential to Cuban freedom and self-determination. They have to be liberated from the stranglehold of the strongest military and economy on earth. And so, you know,

nothing but love and solidarity and admiration for the perseverance and the courage of the Cuban people who have to live with such injustice and such deprivation just because, you know, the imperial hegemon of the world order doesn't like how they're structuring their society and would like to go back to the Batista days when they had to say in how Cuba ran their internal affairs. But with that said, let's move on to this next question because if I understand correctly, you each gave a speech at this event. And I think it'd be worthwhile to sort of discuss those speeches. So can you each let us know what your speech was titled and what it focused on and kind of give us the brief summary of what you spoke about? Yeah, I could start. One of the things I think is worth mentioning is that while we each gave us separate speeches, each of those speeches were written collectively on the spot, the day of, that we were giving it. So we were either inside of the conference, you know, editing, or we were during breaks, our beloved cafe breaks, writing and thinking about what we wanted to say and make sure that we had a sort of unity in language and narrative and what we wanted to come across.

And, you know, that was the first, you know, we've done collective writing pieces before on her communist blog. but I believe that that was the first that we've done it on the spot in that way. And I think it really sharpened us as our analysis. But I think it really also kind of brought us together as a blog because this was really the first type of endeavor, especially as a delegation that we've ever encountered together. So being able to do and write these collective pieces on the spot really was a highlight for me. But I spoke about use against fascism,

strategies for victory. And that was on the third day. And on the three days that we were there during the conference, a lot of the ideas that were prominent themes of the conference were Fidel's battle the ideas. And then also unity as a main strategic weapon. So on the last day, representatives spoke about use. And it was actually refreshing to hear, although a little worrisome, what we think about in terms of what is to be done, but it was refreshing to hear many speakers discussed some of the

similar obstacles faced with reaching the youth. And overall, there was a unity in the urgency to combat cultural imperialism or cultural colonization. And in the U.S., what I spoke about specifically was that our youth are facing an onslaught of propaganda and economic depression and then also social alienation. And this comes from the capitalist state and its educational institutions. But it's also heightened by this neo-fascist movement, social movement, and social backwardness,

like homophobia and racism and xenophobia. It's all becoming more and more popular because capitalist forces are utilizing social and digital media to popularize right-wing ideologies. And we heard from a place, of countries and media entities, you know, that represented the left, that spoke to the overwhelming struggle against TikTok, you know, and how our youth are learning things or coming into ideas or understanding ideas in these uncritical ways of thinking. But it's also

facilitated through the U.S. education system, not just social media, because the violence of the U.S. education system has operated for decades by upholding white-cellar colonial interests. And this education system, it exploits the labor of African communities around the world. It fuel student complacency by promoting capitalist individualism. And the tradition of useful resistance, which was noted in the speech, that we find in HBCUs or just higher education in general, if we consider the legacy of CUNYSW. schools in New York City, it has always emerged in spite of these capitalist endeavors in the universities or public education, not because of them. So we really talked about considering

the reality that data shows that the youth are reading less than ever before. The studies show that the main way that the youth are receiving their information in news is not through reading, written content. They're more globally dependent on video. content. So the question that we raised, or not even the question that we raised, but what we raised in terms of how do we combat this, you know, we talked about in order to combat cultural imperialism, we must confront it strategically with coordinated efforts to combat the backwardsness that has impeded and impacted our culture of resistance, coordinated efforts that informed the youth or proper understanding of media literacy strategically, which means

that across all of our organizations and media arms, we need to be actively utilizing these different forms of art that speak to the youth to uplift particular ways of understanding our own material conditions, and that there must be a clear understanding of revolutionary ideologies and what it's about, which is, in essence, building unity because an ideological firmness is necessary for that unity. And this can't be done in isolation. It can't be done in silos. It has to be done through a network of forces. So that was really the crux of my discussion on youth against fascism and some of the strategies that we talked about for victory. Incredibly important lessons, absolutely. Musa. Yeah, thank you for that, Erica.

and I spoke as well the last day, or was it the last day, the second day of the conference, sorry. I will say the president of Cuba, President Diaz Canal walked into the room literally five minutes before I gave my speech. I was nervous, extremely nervous, you know, it's different giving a talk. without one of the few anti-imperialist leaders in the world in the room. And then, of course, and he walked. But nonetheless, the talk that I gave was about in defense of historical memory against imperialism, which was the theme for the session. And we were all, it was wonderful to be in a room.

As Erica said, it was very affirming to hear that even in Zimbabwe or Vietnam, the U.K., Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, we had a gentleman from Ecuador speak, you know, they are also grappling with the ways that imperialism is twisting and outright falsifying at times history. And especially in light of what the Zionists are doing with the media, we spoke a lot about how media as a tool of imperialism is attempting to erase and rewrite history in favor of imperialism and how this onslaught is itself a side of struggle for us. And so, as Erica said, we collectively wrote all of our statements. And this one, we really wanted to focus on speaking specifically to the African role in anti-imperialism struggles. And really,

elevate the notion of pan-Africanism within the space. And so we spoke about how, you know, the legacy of Africans is a legacy of anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist struggling and organizing and revolution. And how part of us reclaiming our history against imperialism is to popularize and spread like wildfire the true history about out all of our leaders who were assassinated, whether that's Maurice Bishop and Grenada, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King right here in the U.S., Fred Hampton from the Black Panther Party, Winnie and Nelson Mandela being incarcerated for several years in South Africa, Thomas Sankar and Burkina Faso, and so forth and so on, and how the U.S.

has very, very, very intentionally led an assimilation campaign to essentially fold Africans within the U.S. into the U.S. Empire and how it was a very watershed moment with Barack Obama's presidency, because prior to that, there had never truly been mass support for U.S. imperialism and mass support, especially among black people, specifically within the U.S. military. and this is something that comrade at Jammu Baraka talks about a lot Barack Obama was responsible for a shift in that and so we spoke from Cuba of all places

being the best context to even talk about all of this because we know Cuba is part of this you know attack on history and attack on on memory really you know Cuba supplies the world with thousands of doctors all around the world. Outbreaks like Ebola and COVID would have seen 10 times more lives lost if it wasn't for Cuban doctors. In fact, the Ebola epidemic, which largely took place in parts of West and South Central Africa, if it wasn't for Cuba, we might have seen continental collapse

in that case. And so how can you have a state that is such a promoter of not just peace, but black liberation. Cuba is a state sponsor of black liberation, yet, you know, Africans in the U.S., we know little to nothing about Cuba, this island that's only 90 miles off the coast, right? So this is some of the things that I talked about, and we talked about really the need,

the solution that we suggested and submitted was to really focus on producing kind of, quote, 101 level articles that really define the basics and help people think critically. 101 articles that define and explore things like imperialism, media literacy, revolutionary pan-Africanism, and organizing, we outline this as a way that will help us push back against the U.S.'s hypocritical use of so-called, quote-unquote, human rights to implement things like blockades and sanctions, not just abroad, but at home. home against our own people here as well.

And I think Ondey wanted to add something. Yeah, Onya. Yeah, I just want to speak on. So the speech I presented, which was collectively written, was about a strategic proposal against the battle media propaganda to battle the onslaught from the imperialist-dominated media that we're facing. And basically, we're just laying out that the issue is that right now, the way that left forces engage social media is either for like individual aggrandizement,

like there are like communist influencers, which is wild, or it'll be like beefing between organizations in the most public and acrimonious way possible. Or if we are actually like taking action against imperialism, it's happening in a very siloed and like piecemeal way. We're constantly reacting and not taking like proactive, coordinated strategic action. And so in this proposal, we were basically saying, like, this is not going to work. If we are going up against an enemy which has, like, total domination or almost total domination of these media platforms, then the only way that we can combat that enemy is through superior organization, which means that political movements, political, socialists, anti-imperilist, political parties and organizations have to unite in coordinated strategies across tendencies and not just be constantly reacting, but also proactively sharing, like, our narrative, like, what are social. states actually building? What are anti-imperialist movements actually building? Not just constantly

on the defensive, but on the offensive. And so an example that we spoke about was after the July 11th protests, which folks listening, it's really important to understand that those July 11 protests that happened in 2021 were a direct consequence of U.S. policy towards Cuba, just like the protests that are happening now. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Cuba had to shut down its tourism industry, the Trump administration in the U.S. took the opportunity to apply a campaign as what they called maximum pressure, applying over 200 additional sanctions to Cuba to basically attempt to starve the Cuban people, to provoke so much suffering among the population that they would rise up and over through the government. So the destabilization provoked by that protest was like the

intent of the U.S. policy. However, although people were in the streets, they weren't calling for an end to the Cuban Revolution. They weren't calling to an end to socialism as a project, they were saying we want vaccines. We want our power. They were protesting the conditions created by the blockade. They were not protesting, like, the essence of the Cuban Revolution as a project. But the opportunist forces in the U.S., right-wing Cubans, but also like liberals, and like some petty bourgeois African people, academics, seized on the moment. And there became, they came to be like this narrative about so-called anti-blackness in Cuba, about how African people in particular are targeted and victimized and abandoned by the Cuban Revolution,

the revolution's anti-black, all this kind of stuff. And there was like a hot second where that was a dominant narrative about July 11th. And then you saw like the Black Alliance for Peace, the All African People's Revolutionary Party, our platform certainly hood communists, but also organizations like Black Lives Matter, which is like riddled with contradictions, but were correct on this, who all came together and were like absolutely not. Like you are not going to use accusations of anti-blackness or racism against Africans to attack Cuba. Like, Cuba is a majority African nation. The condition of African people in Cuba is materially and politically better than the

condition of African people in the United States. And those conditions were created by Cubans through the Cuban Revolution. So we all came together and, like, put out from our different perspectives, our different platforms, a strategy to combat, like, these lies that were coming from the enemy, that were coming from folks who were against the Cuban Revolution. and it worked. As soon as that Black Lives Matter statements dropped when they were like, if you care about Africans in Cuba and the blockade period, like it just like shut down

all the discourse, all the Afro-pestments got like super quiet. So like that is the kind of strategy that we need to carry out. Like we have to unite like Black Lives Matters liberal at best. But we were side by side as Revolutionary Socialists, pan-Africanist, black liberals, black petty bee people being like, don't do that. And the reason why we were able to coordinate in that way, is because we had all engaged in long-term solidarity work with and political education about Cuba. Like leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global and other things,

they weren't confused about Cuba because the work had been put in ahead of time to clear up their confusion. So that's the kind of like long-term building that we have to do in terms of political education, in terms of coordination. And then also when like these things come up, we have to carry out that kind of coordination across tendencies, cross organizations and cross movements. So, yeah, that's what we talked about. Incredibly important stuff.

All three of those speeches are wonderful and they touch on really important topics and the fact that they were sort of collectively constructed is really beautiful. And I think important just to sort of prefigure that sort of collective communal approach to knowledge building, writing, et cetera. And yeah, I remember when that protest within Cuba happened under the Trump administration, I believe. And there was just this, I saw it so clearly, sir, not the first time, but in a really clarifying way, there's this obvious coordinated media onslaught that started immediately from all corners and on social media where, you know, the corporate media and their toadies and the

mouthpieces for the status quo were all like immediately, before the story had even really went viral or became a big thing, immediately started amplifying it in precisely the same ways. And so if we see that level of coordinated media onslaught from our enemies, then a response and a similarly organized coordinated sort of counter to that is incredibly important. And the fact that, you know, there is this sort of united front to say you're not going to use anti-blackness. You're not going to use our identity as a way to demonize Cuba, I think is beautiful. And we see a similar thing going on right now with regards to Palestine, where anti-Semitism is constantly launched against anybody who merely recognize the humanity of Palestinians to merely recognize the humanity of Palestinians is now

anti-Semitic and there are of course brave Jewish people across the world who are saying not in my name you're not going to use our cultural and religious identity to to act as a cover for your genocide of innocent human beings and so I think that's incredibly important and really principled and wonderful thing to see now you did mention the the current protest night that's a good segue to this next question because in Cuba recently there has been this flare-up of protests rooted in the dire economic conditions within Cuba, largely if not wholly due to the multi-decade long suffocating trade embargo on the island. The U.S. Empire has always had a strategy of sanctions as war and of making the economy scream as a way of undermining

nations that they want to destroy and their economic and political hegemon status has always allowed them the power to do so. So I know you touched on it a little bit, but maybe there's more to say here. How do you all think about this situation and where do you see Cuba going in the coming years? I mean, what's happening now is simply a repeat of what happened in July 11th. Like, people in Cuba are legitimately suffering and they're taking to the street saying we want power, we want food, we want fuel. And the reason why there is a severe shortage of those things in Cuba is a direct consequence of U.S. policy towards Cuba, the economic blockade, the placement of Cuba on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, which, first of all, is

absurd. But second of all, cuts off Cuba from access to global banking. Like, they can't even get loans to engage in, like, basic financial transactions on an international scale. If they, they don't have, like, oil reserves, they import a lot of their food. So if they can't get loans, they literally cannot buy those things. This is, like, a direct consequence of U.S. policy. And it's also very important to understand this is the intent of U.S. policy towards Cuba. I think that folks are probably familiar with the memo written by Lester D. Mallory, who I believe was like Assistant Secretary of State and the Kennedy administration where he straight up says that the intent of the U.S. blockade on Cuba is to cause suffering among the Cuban people to make

them so hungry, to make them suffer so much that they rise up and overthrow their government, overthrow their revolution. So understand when we're talking about the blockade, and we're talking about economic sanctions against places like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, like a third of the earth's population is living under some form of economic sanctions by the U.S. When we talk about those sanctions, we are talking about a strategy which is directly targeting civilian populations,

making them suffer as much as possible. This is why the Trump administration waited for the COVID-19 pandemic to escalate the U.S. blockade on Cuba. This is why the same thing happened to Iran. The Trump administration escalated sanctions on Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. They wait for moments when populations

are suffering and they're like, this is our chance to make it even worse because they want to destabilize the nation. They want the people to suffer so much that they rise up. And so this is what we have to understand about the intent of U.S. policy, like the intent to specifically target civilians. And so if we're talking about wanting to be in solidarity with Cuba, if we're confused liberals talking about human rights in Cuba, we have to recognize the primary criminal, the primary person or entity targeting Cuban human rights is, in fact, the U.S. government is, in fact, U.S. policy towards Cuba in the form of the blockade. And I think this is something that as anti-imperialists, we have to, like, make people understand,

like be relentless about explaining that sanctions are about targeting civilian population, specifically the most marginalized sectors of those populations. Yes, wonderfully said. And on our, I recently left our sister podcast, guerrilla history, but we've done an entire series over the last three years called sanctions as war, in which we do case study after case study after case study. showing the details of how this sort of approach is applied to countries, what it does to the countries. And yeah, it's targeting civilians.

It's ensuring that people don't have food and fuel and medicine. I mean, they do it to Venezuela. They do it to Cuba. They do it to a million places. And when those places inevitably begin to struggle, they smugly point at them and say, see, socialism doesn't work. It's literally grotesque. And the biggest irony is that the biggest terrorist state in the world, the United States of America, has the audacity. and the power to put other states on the state's sponsors of terrorism list as it goes around

and topples countries destroy Syria, destroys Libya, does war crimes in almost every corner of the world, Korea, Vietnam, et cetera, you know, is even behind the Russia-Ukraine war with its sort of antagonistic NATO expansion and using the puppet regime of Zelensky to push forward for conflict. And so the U.S. is this the biggest terrorist apparatus in the world with Israel as its junior partner, of course, and yet it has the power and the audacity to point at other countries, put them on lists, and then strangle their economies. It's straight up evil. You know, it's beyond mere political terms. It is evil in every sense of the world because beyond just hurting a political establishment or a political elite, it is meant, consciously

meant to terrorize and brutalize human beings. Children who need food, you know, mothers and fathers who need to feed their kids. Those are the primary targets. of sanctions, even though they're often presented to us as just a nonviolent form of pressure campaigns on, you know, quote-unquote authoritarian governments, et cetera. So seeing through that and educating people to see through that, I think is absolutely crucial, and you're all doing that really important work. Musa, you had something to say? Yeah, I got a few things on this question.

But one, you know, I think it was on Rev. Left Radio. I listened to an episode about sanctions as siege warfare. And I had not given much thought into this notion of siege warfare and what it looked like, you know, in contemporary times. But it was a really phenomenal way of thinking about sanctions because Pan-Africanists, we always say that the blockade is warfare. You know, it is a direct form of warfare, economic warfare. It's also a form of underdevelopment. But, you know, I think I'm always trying to stress to people the urgency of this situation.

And I think that in our heads, sometimes we categorize things as this over here is an acute situation. And then this thing over here, oh, it's been going on for 65 years so they can hold on a little bit longer. And I want people to really understand what it means to be under a total dominance, campaign under the form of a blockade for over 65 years. What that does to underdevelop the capacity of a state, you know, to pave roads, to fix buildings. In hospitals and pharmacies, the shelves are bare. Like my comrades, they ask me for things like ibuprofen. You know, a condom can cost more than a year's worth of your salary because they're so hard to come by in the U.S. I mean, Cuba. I know someone who is a psychologist herself, a very renowned Cuban psychologist who had a

surgery two summers ago, and she had to bring gloves and PPE like a mask for the doctor at the hospital to use because the hospital was completely out and they didn't know when they were going to get their next shipment. A friend of mine, a really, really close friend of mine who lives with HIV, he's supposed to get a special meal from the government with his rations, a special food supply, a diet meant specifically for him. And he has not been able to get that in three years, right? Because Cuba provides rations of rice and coffee and beans and sugar and these things to their people. And in their public health system, they create special diets for people who might have HIV, people who are elderly or anemic or birthing people who are pregnant.

And the capacity and ability to do all of this is grinding to a standstill more and more every single day. People who I have known for 10 years, every time I travel to the island, their faces are a little bit skinnier and a little bit more gone. And it's something that we're just not supposed to talk about. And, you know, I just can't stress enough the urgency. I mean, we've had 36 years in a row of the only countries voting against ending the blockade is the U.S., Israel, and then sometimes Ukraine. And then a second point, aside from my call to urgency for all listeners, pleased to understand, like, this is a very urgent situation. The U.S. has forced Cuba for the first time in a very, very, very long time to have to ask the UN for food aid and food

support, which actually goes against Cuba's own principles of development. So they're literally being forced to have to ask for food from outside support. And then on the point about that Onee is so wonderfully stated about it being intentional, you know, there's so much documentation of U.S. politicians stating, we want to make Cubans suffer and force them to feel as though they have no choice but to overthrow their own government. This has been explicitly stated so many times. And like I'm looking right now at this, there's a memorandum for the director of the CIA. It's from April 23rd, 1962. And the subject of this memorandum is consequences of a blockade of Cuba. And essentially, this CIA agent is listing out, I think it's, you know, it's about

eight or nine pages long. He's doing detailed research of all the different ways they hope that the blockade will impact Cuba. So this was like, this was I think weeks before it was actually implemented. And he's going down the list. He says, he's estimating, quote, the consequences of and general reactions to a blockade and the likelihood that it would bring about the downfall of the Castro slash communist regime. And then later on, he gives a detailed list of some of the impacts that this blockade will have. And he says, a total blockade of Cuba, which the U.S. could impose if it were willing to accept the heavy cost of its standing prestige and alliances on a global scale, would present the Castro government with formidable problems.

The more than 500 million worth of equipment supplies and food now coming into the country annually would be cut off and Cuba would be thrown back on its own resources. A blockade would quickly bring the economy to a virtual standstill. Food shortages are already marked to occur. Petroleum supplies could be stretched out to meet priority needs for only a few months. I could continue to go on, but this was in 1960. So the fact that for these 65 plus years, the Cuban Revolution has survived and sustained, despite the most monstrous terrorist state in the world, explicitly saying what they are trying to do is overthrow. I think communist, socialist organizers and Africans all around the world should be looking at Cuba as an example

and defending Cuba with our entire heart and soul, that it has been able to sustain and survive despite such. genocidal intentions to starve its people. And then the very, very, very last thing I'll say is I would encourage listeners to look into the history of the U.S. arming gusanos, Miami-based Cubans who fled after the revolution, to go and lead literal terrorist attacks across the island. Everything from plane hijackings to bombing campaigns. like in the Bay of Pigs. Operation Mongoose, which I think started around 1961. The CIA gave tons of money and also bought tons of property across the southern U.S. for Miami Gousanos to then

arm and train them to endeavor in a number of covert operations against the island. I mean, there were over 600 attempts of assassination against Castro. Even just last week, you know, I think it was what, like March 21st, there was this $1.2 trillion package that was just passed that everyone's talking about in the U.S. House of Representatives or whatever. And even in this package, I've been trying to read through it, but it's 800 pages. It's really long. But they mentioned Cuba and Haiti several times, several times. In fact, part of this $1.2 million of aid, actually $25 million of it goes to propaganda against Cuba specifically. It literally says let me see, let me find it. It literally says here, the law contains a statement that prohibits

allocating available funds for programs only to promote democracy in Cuba, not on issues linked to business promotion, economic reform, entrepreneurship, or any other assistance. So this bill appropriates $25 million towards broadcasting propaganda through radio Marti and TV Marti based out of Miami. And it prohibits any of these funds going to the Cuba's private sector. And that's important to keep in mind because the U.S. propaganda line is that our sanctions, are only against the U.S. government, not the private sector and not the civilians. So now they're appropriating funds to do anti-Cuban propaganda, and they're even specifying now that even this so-called private sector that they claim to love so much, now they're

also against them as well. And so I just really encourage people to take a look at this $1.2 trillion proposal that's about to be passed. It clearly outlines an imperialist approach to foreign policy and codifies it in law. It also lists countries like Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, that they should not receive any direct aid from the U.S. whatsoever unless it comes through a U.S. aid special referendum. It mentions Haiti and providing quote unquote aid and supports a Haiti in the forms of just, it just says, here for the quote unquote democracy programs, police, anti-gang and justice programs, detention and elimination of human prison conditions, ill human prison conditions. So again, like the imperialists are extremely, extremely open and intentional about what they're

doing and they're intense behind it. It literally just takes a Google search. And so the Cuban people really understand the urgency of the situation. And I don't. think that people outside of Cuba often get how urgent it is. Yeah, incredibly important information, and I want that information to be spread as far and wide as possible. You know, just by the mere fact of being an island nation, you have a lot of difficulty with regards to being completely, you know, self-dependent or having easy access to trade across land. You need to be able to import certain materials and various things, no matter how self-determined you want to be, and no matter how self-sufficient you want to be, being on an island is difficult.

just geopolitically, geographically. And so you add on top of all this other stuff, it just makes it so impossible for Cubans to self-determined, to just have basic decency, et cetera. And if we look over what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, you know, they're bombing, they bombed them, and now they are starving them to death. And the whole world can see that for exactly what it is.

And what's going on in Cuba is a lot like that. The U.S. and other places as well, like Venezuela, et cetera, the U.S. is consciously trying to starve people of the basic necessities. of life because they don't agree with how their society is organized. It is not organized in U.S. interests. Therefore, it should be dismantled and the people should be brutalized with extreme violence, which is when you deprive people of food and medicine and basic material necessities to have a functioning society, you are imposing incredible violence upon them. And we should never let

them try to convince the world that they're not. Now, the next thing I want to move on and kind of do a little bit of a topic shift here. The Black Alliance for Peace and other partner organizations have launched what is called the Zone of Peace campaign. Can you kind of tell us what that is, what its core demands are and what its objectives are? Yes, I can. So this January 29th makes 10 years since he has the states and governments of the community of Latin American and Caribbean states, which is CELAC, met in Havana, Cuba and declare Latin America and the Caribbean that they should be seen and respected as a zone of peace. But again, that's been 10 years, and this declaration from

government representatives has not translated into a people's center and movement across the region. So on April 4th of 2023, BAP, alongside key partner organizations, launched the zone of peace campaign at Port of Prince, Haiti, Washington, D.C., in Havana, Cuba. And this was an effort to activate the popular movement element, excuse me, of this state-centered declaration by reinvigorating the declaration and building support across the region.

So we are committed to building an international zone of peace in our Americas, informed by the Black radical peace tradition, which is an understanding that peace is not the absence of conflict, but the achievement, rather, by popular struggle and self-defense of a world liberated from nuclear argument and proliferation, unjust war, and global white supremacy. So as part of this, we understand the extent of U.S. imperialism in the Americas and work to join our peoples in the organizations in a coordinated anti-militarist, anti-imperialist struggle, and push war people-centered human rights. and what PCR is, it's a way to help guide how we can maneuver through the rhetorical hypocrisy of the West's use of human rights, because it's a politic of being whole. So this framework is an approach that views human rights as an area or an arena, rather, of struggle that when grounded and formed by the needs and aspirations of the oppressed,

becomes part of the unified, comprehensive strategy for decolonization and radical change. And it distinguishes itself from the erroneous and prevalent use of the West human rights by requiring an epistemological break with a human rights orthodoxy, or excuse me, orthodoxy grounded in Eurocentric liberalism. It's a reconceptualization of human rights from the standpoint of oppressed peoples, are restructuring, a prevalent social relationships that perpetuate oppression and the acquiring of power on the part of the oppressed to bring about that restructuring. So again, BAP is leading this effort to revive the civil society element of the state-centered

declaration by popularizing the declaration and building popular support across the region. And the objectives, of course, is to build a people-centered campaign that coordinates anti-imperialist, anti-war and pro-peace organizations, political parties, labor and social justice organizations, as well as movements across the region to move our Americas towards building alternative institutions and centers of power. We also want to strengthen an America's wide consciousness among the peoples of the region, which includes making sure that people within the U.S., Africans in particular, especially in the southern region, understand our, ourselves as part and parcel of the Americas and establishing a people-centered America's wide coordinating structures that will facilitate the successful expulsion of the U.S. EU-Natal access of domination from our region. And this includes Operation Trade Wins, which is military combatant activities that occur across the Caribbean training that is partnered with

NATO nations like France, like the Netherlands, like Canada. Most recently, they just held one in Guyana, I believe. Also, the Global Fragilities Act and, you know, other soft power institutions like Ned and the USAID, which, you know, is very busy in areas like Cuba, Nicaragua, etc. And then some of the initial core demands are to dismantle Southcom and the U.S. NATO military exercises to ban U.S. sponsored terrorists, state terrorist training facilities like the Western Hemisphere Institute for security cooperation. And for those who don't know, that's formerly the School of the Americas. And a lot of what we do in this campaign is liking that to Cop City.

And the training facility, a cop city, and the type of training that will be. occurring is very similar to how we understand the school of the Americas. Also, opposing military intervention in Haiti and the return of Guantanamo to Cuba. So those are just a few of the initial demands that we have for the Zone of Peace. Most recently, there was a strategic meeting held in Colombia to discuss how do we move this forward. This was done with a plethora of grassroots organizations across the Americas in nations like Nicaragua, in nations like Brazil, the U.S., obviously.

We had Guyana representative. So a lot of what we did there as well was leave with a declaration in support of Haiti, in support of the self-sovereignty and self-determination and sort of reasserting an emphasis on the call of the zone of peace from the CILA community. Yeah, well, of course, I'll put a link in the show notes for people who are interested in that zone of peace campaign so they can learn more about it, they can support it in whatever ways

they can, et cetera. So that will be in the show notes so people can easily access that. But this is also a perfect segue to discussing another important island in the Caribbean being threatened by U.S. imperialism and having a long history of colonialism. And that is, of course, Haiti. Can you give us a brief summary of sort of Haiti's modern history so we can back better understand the context before we delve into what's happening today? Yeah, Haiti has been a focal point for the pan-Africanist liberation and anti-colonial struggle

since the nation erupted into revolt against slavery in 1791 and then cemented its libertory revolutionary character through an adaptation and adoption of a new flag in 1803 and then proclaimed independence in 1804. But beyond the internal revolutionary character, a representation of a liberated Black Republic, which, you know, my personal pet peeve is that people get stuck right there. That is the first Black Republic. The region as a whole would not have been decolonized without the liberation of Haiti.

And it is not without irony that the historic dialectic of European Colonial Project at Haiti, the first contact point of Christopal Colom, that began the invasion of, conquest of what became the Americans region is now a central point of European colonial collusion led by the U.S.

to maintain white power in Haiti and beyond. So for the Black Alliance for Peace, we understand Haiti to be the key to liberation and transformation of the entire America's region as part of the global anti-colonial revolutionary

project and revolutionary pan-African movement as a whole. So, with the understanding that Haiti is an entry point, it was also our entry point for the expanded work on the Americas. And we formed the Haiti America's committee now, the Haiti America's team in January 2021 during the eruption of protests to remove juvenile ways, who was then being supported by the Biden administration, despite being unconstitutionally still in office. And we also recognize the Haiti's critical place in the struggle for both black liberation and the anti-colonial

independence fights throughout the Americas. In that understanding, we understand the U.S. Empire's interests in the expansion of his genemy, which has resulted in a constant reactionary also against the people of Haiti. So there's a lot of conversation, again, to my pet peeve, of Brown, Haiti in 1804 and recognizing Haiti's place as a first Black Republic. But the solidarity kind of sort of stops right there. And people don't really engage Haiti contemporarily. Because while it is rich in struggle, there's a long rich history of oppression and colonization, stemming from 1915 with the U.S. colonized, the U.S. military colonized Haiti,

15 years. Yeah, absolutely. And for those who would like to learn more, there's lots of resources out there. We've done an episode here on Rev. Left on the Haitian Revolution in particular. Don't stop there, though, as Erica just made very clear, continued to learn more. And on guerrilla history, we've also done several episodes in the history of Haiti, so people can learn that. But before we move on very quickly, Musa, did you have anything to say or did you want me to

move into that next question? Yeah, I just wanted to briefly, very, very briefly add for listeners who might be wondering what does Haiti have to do with us in the U.S. or feel like it's deeply disconnected. U.S. clothing and apparel manufacturers, one of their favorite places to set up shop, is actually Haiti because for decades now they have been operating extremely revolting sweatshops all across the island. And in fact, is U.S. policy slash export taxes from Haiti by force and, suppressed the wages across the island. And garment workers from these sweatshops have been protesting for years now, actually against U.S. imperialism, specifically demanding wage

increases, among other things. And on top of that, some of Haiti's top exports are things like apparel, but also, excuse me, Vvedere, which is used in a lot of perfumes and fragrances. So I just wanted to kind of add that note as well, that it is very deeply connected. Yeah, absolutely. That's crucial. Now that we have some of that context, can you discuss the current situation in Haiti? It's been blowing up recently. It's in global headlines all around the world, what's currently happening. It's often framed, you know, disingenuously or one-sidedly by, especially the U.S. press. But, you know, now that we sort of have situated Haiti in its a historical context, and it's the ongoing onslaught against it, both, you know, exploitatively

with these sweatshops, imperialistically, neocolonialistically, if that's a word. Can you discuss the current situation in Haiti, the ever-present role of the U.S., and what the masses in Haiti actually want for themselves and their country? Yeah, I would say similar to what was discussed about Cuba and just the headlines and how the media represents Cuba in a particular way, we see that with Haiti and it's always in an effort to sort of capture these nations. The U.S. have helped capture these nations. But to my point, what I said earlier, Haiti is currently under occupation by the U.S. UN and the Corps Group. The Corps Group is a self-appointed cabal of foreign entities with political and economic interest in Haiti,

who effectively rules the country, and it's combined with representatives of a number of multilateral organizations. And agencies, we also must note that Brazil is one of those nations and continues to be. But the occupation of Haiti began in 2004 with the U.S. French Canada sponsor, Kudataa, of Haiti's democratically elected president, Ariseed. The Kudata was approved by the U.N. Security Council at the time, and it established an occupying military force. That coup is 20 years, February 29th, made for 20 years. and it established what was called a quote-unquote peacekeeping mission,

which was the acronym Munista. And through Minista, the mission officially ended in 2017, allegedly, but the UN office in Haiti was reconstituted under Benu, along with the core group. And they continue to have a powerful role in Haitian affairs. And over the past four years, the Haitian masses have mobilized and protested against an illegal government, imperial meddling

and the removal of fuel subsidies leading to rising costs of living and insecurity by elite funded armed groups. They've also, as workers, been protesting against what Musa just named, you know, the labor struggles that they've had

as disenfranchised workers within working for Levi, working for Coca-Cola, etc., etc., all of these plants that are stationed in Haiti. But these protests have been snuffed out by U.S. installed puppet governments. So since 2021, attempts to control Haiti by the U.S. have been intensified. In that year, we've seen Javier Mouyez was assassinated.

And then Ariel Henri was installed by the U.N. core group in the U.S. And he remained a de facto prime minister up until most recently. So in the wake of the assassination of Moise and the installation of Henri, the U.S. had sought to build a coalition of foreign states willing to send military forces to occupy Haiti. And they were going around. They went to Mexico. Mexico said no. They went to Canada. Canada declined.

And, you know, they finally landed at Caracom. But the armed groups that these gangs that has been in the headlines, these wildly. named cannibal gangs should be understood as paramilitary forces because they have been controlled by the elite. They have been working for the government

for particular private investment and corporate interests, etc. And then also, it's very important to be noted that Haiti does not manufacture guns, right? So when we hear about these gangs, these armed gangs, and

we have to understand that the guns, the ammunition is coming primarily from the U.S. and also the Dominican Republic. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation Unit reported that a surge in firearms trafficking for Florida to Haiti

between 20 and 21 excuse me, 20201 and 2022, was discovered. So obviously these things are coming in in the influx from the U.S. and moreover it should be recognized that the U.N. the core group

and the U.S. are the real gangsters in Haiti because they have completely taken over and control the nation. So when they landed to Caracom and Caracom, you know, took the bait at that convention where they had these conversations, Rwanda was there, Kenya was there, there was another African nation that was there, and they all had these conversations about what best to do about Haiti. And Kenya took the bait, obviously, was baited by 200, million from the U.S., but Kenya agreed to do it, Jamaica and the Bahamas agreed to back them. And before Ariel Henri lost his power, and I don't like to say resign, because resignation kind

of gives credence to a diplomatic process that never occurred. Nobody voted for this man. He was installed. So before he was unistalled, before he lost his power, he was traveling back and forth to Kenya to sort of cement this proposal. for Kenya to send a thousand police officers into Haiti to occupy Haiti, the sort of black-faced imperialism that was occurring. But Kenya kind of ran into an issue because the civil society and grassroots movements in Kenya

petitioned to the courts that it was unconstitutional for Kenya to even not only consider it, but actually attempt to send. So that was a bit of the hiccup, but they, been going through. There's been secret meetings in D.C. Now that Henri is no longer the de facto prime minister, they are meeting in Jamaica, Teracom

and other forces are meeting in Jamaica being led by Myanmar lead, the quote unquote progressive, to figure out the next way to occupy Haiti. So right now we are really just trying to amplify what is occurring

as the BAPD America's team, but more broadly, I that we've worked with the All-African People's Revolutionary Party in getting the word out about what's occurring with Haiti, making sure that people understand Haiti as an occupied nation, understand Haiti as a colonized nation, not dissimilar to the struggles that's happening in Palestine, making those connections,

because it always appears that progressiveness, especially in the Americas, seems to stop at the doors of Haiti. And we can see that with Lula, we can see that with Amlowe and they're currently with Mia Mottley. Yeah, absolutely masterful summary. I really, really appreciate that, especially pushing back on the sort of absurdities and the sort of condescending versions of reality that are funneled to us through the corporate media.

It's just so absurd. So thank you so much for that, Erica. Onie, do you have anything else to add to that? Yeah, I really appreciated the naming and shaming of Mia Mottley and Lula and Amlo. Shout out to Erica. Thank you for doing that. that and for the Black Alliance for Peace for their work around Haiti. The only thing I'd say in addition to Erica's summary is that the narrative about Haiti is that it's like an out of

control, chaotic plays, runaway gangs, Haitian people essentially are not capable of governing themselves. As Erica laid out very, very clearly, the crisis in Haiti is not a crisis of an ungovernable population. The crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. And it's also really important to recognize that the Haitian people are conscious of who the enemy is. They understand and who was occupying their country. They understand the role of the U.S. and the U.N. and the core group and France and so on. They have never accepted the puppet leaders that have been placed in their faces to play in their faces. They never accepted Ariel Hendry.

They never accepted Moishevonel when Arsdeed was overthrown two times in 2004, but also in 1991. Same guy overthrown two times that Haitian people did not accept it. And it's important to recognize that Arrested was part of a mass people's movement. with a socialist political character that was talking about nationalizing the resources that was talking about nationalized health care that was opening up hospitals, university, secondary schools. They had a socialist economic program for Haiti's development,

and that is why he was overthrown. Not just about Aristide as the person of the mass socialist people's movement that produced him as a candidate that still exists in Haiti. The solutions to the crisis that are happening in Haiti is well within the hands of the Haitian people. The problem is that all of these external forces are constantly, constantly, constantly meddling

in the affairs of that nation. They regard the masses of poor and working class people, African people, and Haiti as an obstacle to their objective of exploiting and looting and destroying Haiti. Like, they are in the way of the land that the imperialists want to control, of the resources that the imperialists want to control, of the labor that they want to exploit.

Like, the conscious and organized Haitian people are considered to be an obstacle by these forces. And that's why it's so important the work the Black Alliance for Peace is doing, specifically the Haiti America's team, the work that APRP is doing to elevate the actual, like, the actual, like, conscious organizing of the masses of people in Haiti because it's not discussed. It's just talked about as, like, a constant crisis, constant chaos.

But that's not, that's actually happening on the ground. Yeah, incredibly well said and a very powerful note to end on. Thank you, all three of you so, so much for coming on our show and helping educate me and my audience about these crucial, crucial, you know, situations and your involvement in them, you're organizing on the ground, going to Cuba, I'm doing really important political education work with regards to Haiti. It's deeply appreciated, and I have nothing but deep admiration and respect for all of you and the organizations that you each represent. So with that said, before I let you each go, can you let us know where listeners can find

hood communist online, any other organizations you would like to direct listeners to, and then importantly, where listeners can find each of you and your work online if you want to give that information out. Okay. I'll start with the Hood Communist resources, and then I'll give my own and pass it to Erica. So, Hood Communist, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, all the same way at Hoot Communists. We also recently launched a YouTube channel.

Our very first video was a report back from our participation in the theoretical publications of the Left Conference in Havana. You can find that also on YouTube, YouTube.com slash at hook communists. And we encourage folks to subscribe. Check us out. Subscribe to our telegram. We do, let's just say, we'll say the nice way of saying is a sporadic, like, live conversations on our telegram going in depth into articles we publish on the blog and current events happening in the world.

And you can also find past recordings of our telegram conversations on Spotify under Hood Communist Radio. So Instagram, Telegram, YouTube. Spotify, at Hood Communists. And then for me, definitely folks, check out the All-African People's Revolutionary Party. AAPrip-I-N-TL.org is our website at APRP International on Instagram and on Twitter. I'm in the Florida organizing area of the APRP. Yes, there is a revolutionary left in Cuba. I mean, in Florida, you can't tell from the outside, but we're there. And so the APRP is part of it, along with a number of communists and anti-imperlist organizations. So follow at

at APRP, Florida, on Instagram. And if you are interested in traveling to Cuba, after hearing us talk about our experience, and I hope you are. The 52nd contingent of the Ven Sanamos Brigade is traveling to Cuba, specifically to Guantanamo Province, July 18th to July 30th of this year. The application to join us is open,

so please, it closes March 31st. You have a week. So go to VB4Cuba.com to find that application to learn more about the brigade and to participate if you are down. and I'll pass it to Erica. Wonderful. Yeah.

I did want to say, you know, there's a lot of conversation around how do we regard to support for Haiti. And I always talk about, you know, the support that we see for Cuba today is not what we've seen 10 years ago. It's certainly not what we've seen in the 90s. And those are things that have to be built. And to that point, I want to direct people to Black Alliance for Peace.com to the Haiti resource page, learn about what's happening in Haiti. We have a toolkit for folks who want to get involved for banner drops and teach-ins and, you know, a plethora ways to learn and to spread this message about what's happening in Haiti, but not just Haiti. You can also go on Black Lives for Peace and check out the Zone of Peace campaign. You can read the declaration that, you know, for Haiti, no occupation in Haiti, but you can also learn more about our work overall with the Zone of Peace and work in Nicaragua in Peru.

in Cuba and Venezuela branching out to around the Caribbean islands so yes please support that and yeah I'll leave there oh and also support Liberation Through Reading and you can find that at Liberation Through Reading on Instagram. Wonderful

Yeah and I don't have much to add to that because they shouted out the same groups that I'm a part of but if folks want to keep up to date with BAP Atlanta specifically and find out what we're doing here in ATL. Folks can follow BAP Atlanta on Instagram and Twitter. That's BAP Atlanta. We do a lot of work, especially right now, around Gilly,

the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program, and stopping Cop City, the multi-million dollar facility that is a urban warfare training center that contributes to the occupation of our African, neighborhoods in Atlanta. A lot of our work at BAP, Atlanta, is connecting our conditions in Atlanta, struggling against police, militarization, and occupation with the conditions of people in Haiti and Cuba. That's what a lot of our political education is based around. Folks can also check out the Groundings podcast streaming on all platforms. I recently had a wonderful

conversation with Erica and Hiram Rivera about the nonprofit industrial complex. And I have some new episodes coming up in the upcoming weeks. So definitely go check that out. Wonderful. Yeah, I can't recommend that enough either. I'll link to all of that in the show notes so people can quickly and easily find those links and join up however they can. It's really, really important that people, you know, throw their hat into the ring and get organized, get educated, and, you know, play your role. But thank you all three so much for coming on again.

I really, really deeply appreciate it and all the organizations that you represent. Keep up the amazing work and you always have a home here at RevLeft if you ever want to come back on for any reason whatsoever. Thank you. Thank you. A huge fan of the show. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. It's always a pleasure talking with you, Brett. The first song is written when our commander in chiefly

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the blisa with suns of the primavera to plant

the banterra with the light of your smile of your sonrisa Here here

there's the clara the intranial transparency of your great presencia

command the cheque para Your Your Love Revolution You Conduose to a new

Emperesa Where they're the firmness To your Braso Libertario Here

Here So I see that's The cragible Transparency Of your dear presence Commandant that

Cheeke for To get you To be We'll We're going to As we're We're going to

And with Pidel you, we'll We tell you, After always, Commandant Here, here's The clara

The clear the intranial transparency of your perin' Presence

Comandante Chegevora Oh!