CPIML GS at Cuba-Palestine Solidarity Event
On the 70th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks attack, which gave rise to Movimiento 26 Julio laying the path towards Cuban Revolution, a convention 'Fidel and Palestine' was organised by the National Committee for Solidarity with Cuba in Delhi on July 26. Ambassador of Cuba Alejandro Simancas Marin Ambassador and Ambassador of Palestine Adnan Abu Alhaija were keynote speakers.
Two resolutions were adopted at the seminar demanding Cuba to be Removed from the list of states sponsor of terrorism and the resolution in solidarity with Palestine.
Saluting the revolutionary legacy of the Cuban people, Dipankar Bhattacharya noted, “I stand here to express our fullest support to the two Solidarity Resolutions that have been placed before in support of Cuba and in support of the Palestinian resistance struggle. Let me also take this opportunity to extend our warm wishes to the people of Cuba, because this is a historic occasion, the 70th anniversary of the Great Rebellion, the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. So we extend our warm wishes to the Cuban people as they celebrate this great day, and to carry forward the great legacy of the Cuban Revolution, and to build Cuba as they wish, and to chart the future course of Cuba in defense of Cuba's own interests.”
Com. Dipankar also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian Struggle and said “Let me also take this opportunity to extend revolutionary greetings to the people of Palestine who are waging one of the most protracted and most fundamental struggles for national liberation for such a long period. As we express solidarity, I think it is important for us to realise that this solidarity is much more, it should be much more central to our own political understanding and to our own political struggles in India today. Because the politics that we face here today is very similar to the kind of challenges that the people in Palestine are facing today. If they are facing a genocidal campaign on an everyday basis, so are we.”
Sitaram Yechury (General Secretary, CPIM). Binoy Viswam, MP & Secretary CPI national council and G. Devarajan, General Secretary, AIFB also spoke at the event saluting the people of Cuba and Palestine and their revolutionary struggles.
“Inside India and so many parts of India, so many sections of Indian people, we are facing similar kinds of threats and violence on an everyday basis. As we just remembered that our time was when Indian foreign policy used to be very different. When the defense of Cuba, the protest against the embargo on Cuba, the support for the Palestinian cause used to be on top of India's own foreign policy priorities. But today the Indian government’s foreign policy priority is expressed in being part of I2U2, where India and Israel, United States and United Arab Emirates are all together. I think, let us take this solidarity message deep among our own people, and as Comrade Sitaram Yechury and Comrade Binoy Viswam also said that this should become our own independent priority to exert pressure on the Indian government for a reorientation of the reorientation of Indian foreign policy against imperialism and for national liberation everywhere.” added Com. Dipankar.
Com. Dipankar said that by remembering the Cuban revolution we understand and appreciate the power of the revolution more and more. Because when it happened in the 1960s, it was probably the third most important turning point of the 20th century.
“The Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the Cuban revolution and then Vietnam. The four most important advances made by the socialist movement, by the left movement, internationally in the 20th century. But today, when Cuba survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they continue to survive and march forward in the face of such a protracted blockade, in the face of such imperialist aggression, I think we cannot but appreciate the strength, the innate strength of that Cuban revolution and the spirit of international solidarity which Cuba has always championed and in a way epitomised internationally. And that should also be more a kind of moving spirit of our contemporary politics.
“Similarly, the Palestinian struggle, the victory for the Palestinian resistance, should be a very important concern for the Indian people. And with this, let me once again extend our fullest support to the resolution and to the people of Cuba, to the people of Palestine and to the people of the world at large against imperialism and in support of socialism, in support of democracy, in support of national liberation everywhere.”
