People's Democracy

Cuban Leaders Feted In Kolkata

B Prasant

THE two-member Cuban delegation, comprising Pablo Bassallo Infante, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Juan Pozzo Alvarez were warmly welcomed in Kolkata and they were feted at a mass reception on the evening of December 3 at the Mahajati Sadan in Kolkata.  The mass reception was organised by the Bengal Left Front.  The Cuban delegates in India at the invitation of the All-India Peace and Solidarity Organisation are touring the country mobilising opinion against the aggressive role of the US imperialism against Cuba.  They have travelled across eight cities of six states. 

The Cuban delegates were welcomed at the Howrah station in the morning of December 2 by CPI(M) state committee members, Sridip Bhattacharya and Avik Dutta, and by the CPI(M) MLA Lagandeo Singh and other leaders of the CPI(M).

The Cuban delegates also took part in a programme at Haldia and later visited the Netaji Bhavan and the birthplace of Tagore at Jorasanko.  They were accompanied by chief whip of the Left Front, Rabin Deb. The Cuban leaders noted that the poems of Tagore were included in the syllabus of school-going children in Cuba.

In the morning of December 3, the Cuban leaders met the Left Front leaders at a meeting at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan.  Following the mass reception, the Left Front welcomed the Cuban leaders in a dinner that was attended by Jyoti Basu who said that he had had a one-to-one meeting with the Cuban president Fidel Castro and had occasion to discuss issues of International importance.  Basu declared that the freedom struggle of Cuba continued to inspire the people of the world.  The Cuban leaders apprised Basu about the current situation in Cuba.

Addressing the packed gathering at the Mahajati Sadan, Pablo Infante said that he and Juan Alvarez were greatly moved by the spontaneity that marked the reception programmes in Haldia and here in Kolkata.  Infante recalled how back in 1992, a shipful of rice went from Bengal to Cuba at a time when the country was going through a particularly tough period.  The enemy was at that time eagerly awaiting the collapse of Cuba from a tightening blockade.

Declaring that the Cuban struggle would continue apace against the forces of imperialism, Infante said that a deep conspiracy was being hatched to destroy the unity that Cuban could build up with the countries of the world.  In a recent document, the US imperialists had spoken about bringing down Cuban socialism. The US and its lackeys were continuing with a hateful campaign of pure lie about conditions in Cuba, said the Cuban leader.

In Cuba, said Infante, every child went to school and education remained free even at the university level.  Health services are free, too.  All Cuban peasants possess land and ownership is divided equally men and women.  70% of the workers are women.  The women enjoy one of the best maternity leave facilities.  In the Cuban parliament, 27% of the members are women.  In sports, Cuba, always a frontrunner in various fields, could win 10 gold medals at the Athens Olympics.  Cuba, said Infante, remained free of religious as well as racial discrimination.  There were no prostitution or drug peddling in Cuba.  Infante concluded among loud cheers by saying that if the people of the Third World struggled unitedly, a better world was always possible. 

CPI(M) leader and Left Front chairman, Biman Basu who presided over the mass reception and who has visited Cuba several times said that the progress achieved by Cubans despite the US blockade in the fields of education and health were of higher levels than those of even highly developed nations.  Biman Basu noted the deep crisis into which Cuba was thrown in by the Helms-Burton amendment of the anti-Cuba outlook of the US administration in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Basu noted the nature of the solidarity of the people of the world for Cuba.

State secretary of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas said that the US blockade of Cuba from 1962 was the longest in the history of the world.  Thanks to US machinations, Cuba is not able to negotiate loans from abroad.  As the attack against Cuba was stepped up, so was the support and solidarity worldwide for Cuba.  Centering on Cuba, the Left has gathered strength in Latin America, across Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Biswas depicted how support and solidarity for Cuba was on the upswing.  In 1993, at the UN, 88 members had voted against the Cuban blockade.  The number went up to 101 in 1994.  In 2002, 173 members voted against the blockade.  In 2004, the number of those nations opposing the blockade stood at 186.  Biswas said that the socialist development in Cuba was a challenge, and a successful one too, in the face of the capitalist development of some countries including the US.  The new Cuba was being constructed based on self-reliance even in the age of capitalist globalisation.

Ashok Ghosh of the Forward Bloc, Sunil Sengupta of the RSP, and Manjukumar Majumdar of the CPI, too, addressed the mass reception.