Neo-McCarthyism, Academic Freedom & “Hands Off Venezuela/Cuba”
Host Mimi Rosenberg speaks with labor historian Professor Tom Alter about his summary firing from Texas State University after a deceptively edited clip of an off-campus talk—situating his case within a broader wave of repression against academic freedom, DEI, and pro-Palestine speech. The conversation traces historical precedents for today’s “neo-McCarthyism,” the targeting of universities, and the double standard around “free speech” on campus. In part two, Mimi brings us to a Harlem rally demanding hands off Venezuela and lift the blockade on Cuba, featuring statements from Friends of the Congo, Puerto Rican youth organizers, and defenders of Cuba’s medical brigades, tying sanctions to global struggles for sovereignty and justice—and offering concrete ways to act.
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:43 A New McCarthyism at Home: repression of dissent, pro-Palestine speech, and campus crackdowns
01:21 Guest Introduction: Professor Tom Alter (Texas State University), labor historian of race, labor, capitalism, and protest
01:54 What Happened to Alter: off-campus Sunday conference; no-recording policy; far-right recording and deceptive edits
05:08 Firing by Social Post: tenure revoked without due process; First & Fourteenth Amendment concerns
05:52 Court-ordered Reinstatement & Sham “Process”: hearing before the same administrator acting as prosecutor and judge
07:52 Historical Context: 1950s McCarthyism and European fascist precedents; why authoritarian regimes target universities
11:53 Universities as Battlegrounds: funding leverage to purge left scholars; converting campuses into ideological training grounds
18:25 Scrubbing the Curriculum: dismantling DEI; attacks on gender/women’s/sexuality studies; chilling labor and working-class history
21:35 Free-Speech Double Standard: Turning Point USA welcomed while critical faculty/students punished; Texas Tech & Texas State student cases
24:50 Who Defends Democratic Rights?: working-class and social-justice organizations claiming the unfinished promise of liberty and equality
27:15 What’s at Stake & How to Help: speech/press/assembly; due process; actions via defendtomalter.org; appeal to Board of Regents
29:30 Event Info: Rutgers, Friday Nov. 7, noon, Murray Hall 301 — “Fighting for a Right to Teach and Learn”
30:59 Transition to Harlem Rally: “Hands Off Venezuela” and “Lift the Blockade on Cuba”
31:35 Anti-Sanctions Day & Zimbabwe: sanctions as neocolonial tools; linking Cuba/Venezuela/Africa struggles
33:10 Mandela’s Lesson on Solidarity: movements define their friends; connect Cuba solidarity with anti-genocide demands for Palestine
34:45 Friends of the Congo Statement: human costs of the U.S. blockade; Cuba’s resilience and Global South medical solidarity
36:40 Puerto Rican Youth Movement (UPI): sovereignty, socialism, shared struggle; Martí, Betances, and Ríus Rivera invoked
38:25 Carlota’s Warriors: defending Cuban Medical Brigades; countering disinformation; sanctions on partner nations cost lives
40:15 Blockade Impact Snapshots: essential medical supplies and public-health constraints; call to end the embargo
41:05 New York State Senate Solidarity: support for lifting the blockade and removing Cuba from the “terror” list; call for delegations
42:30 Street Chants & Community Energy: “Cuba sí, bloqueo no”; “U.S. hands off Cuba—end the embargo now”
43:33 Practical Pathways: IFCO/Pastors for Peace medical-school scholarships in Cuba (for U.S. residents since 2000)
44:50 Harlem Organizer: build coalitions, defend neighbors against ICE/National Guard; link Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Palestine
50:59 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Rough TRANSCRIPT:
This is Building Bridges. I’m Mimi Rosenberg, bringing you the voices of resistance from the front lines of struggle, where labor and community and international solidarity meet. Later in the program,
we go to Harlem, where people rallied to demand hands off Venezuela, stop the sanctions, stop the covert provocations and overt killings, stop warring on Venezuela and lift the blockade on Cuba. But first,
we turn our attention homeward, where a new McCarthyism is sweeping the nation, a campaign of suppression and intimidation aimed squarely at those who challenge U. S. empire, capitalist exploitation, and the genocide in Palestine. And now,
as fascism, dressed in the garb of Trump, consolidates power across all branches of government, and Trump and his Maggites and Kirkites rally reaction behind the banners of nationalism and white supremacy, we are seeing the machinery of repression being fine-tuned to silence any challenge to empire at home and abroad.
And that brings us to Professor Tom Alter, a professor of history at Texas State University in San Marcos, whose academic focus is on US and Texan history, with particular expertise in transnational approaches to race, labor, capitalism, and protest movements.
He is a published labor historian and explicit about his political stance. He is a socialist who has become a target in the Trump crusade of political persecution. Professor Alter joins us to talk about his experience and to situate it within this larger moment. The system strive to extinguish dissent, criminalize solidarity, and enforce ideological conformity in the service of empire.
It’s so good to have you with us, Professor Alter. Thank you for having me on. It’s an immense honor to be here with you tonight. All ours. All ours. You know, I just got this notice that says in October,
the Trump administration sent its Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. to nine prominent universities, offering preferential federal funding in exchange for sweeping policy changes, cap international students at 15%, freeze tuition for five years, ban DEI,
require gender restrictive bathroom policies, and revise governance structures that. . . Stifle free speech. Ah, the reverse discrimination argument. Well,
Tom, for those against that backdrop, really, Tom, for those who may not know your story, can you walk us through what happened as you do? help us understand what it reveals about where we are as a society when it comes to
academic freedom, political speech, and the policing of ideas that challenge power. And again, thank you for what you do, because this is about building support for people such as yourself. Yes, and my fight didn’t begin with me, and it doesn’t end with me.
And that’s why I’m so glad to be on your program to express solidarity with all the struggles of the people and here in the United States and around the world. Now, my particular case and what happened with myself began on September 7th. on a Sunday morning when I was participating in an online revolutionary socialism conference sponsored by the organization Socialist Horizon, Firebrand and the International Socialist League. I was asked to participate in this conference to speak on a session on
revolutionary organizing today. Basically what we as working class people can do to organize ourselves in the context of this growing authoritarianism and creeping fascism that we are seeing across the United States. I gave the talk on my own private time, not affiliated whatsoever with Texas State University, just like I am doing now.
I’m not speaking on behalf of Texas State University or as my capacity as a history professor. And so I spoke on my own time on a Sunday morning from my home office via Zoom. And I introduced myself solely as a member of one of my unions, the Texas State Employees Union, which is a grassroots social justice union affiliated with the Communication Workers of America nationally. And I also introduced myself as a member of Socialist Horizon.
And in none of the conference promotional materials was I identified as a Texas State faculty member. and the conference had a no recording policy. Now, unbeknownst to myself and conference organizers, a self-described anti-communist cult leader who was also a self-described fascist with a YouTube channel
recorded the entirety of this two-day online conference, and then took sections of my talk to make it appear that I was advocating for overthrowing the US government. When what I was doing in full context was questioning those who participate in direct action without having some type of form of organization. For example, you have the civil rights movement. engaged in direct action but they were highly organized and what they’re carrying
out and so I was questioning how can someone engage expect to overthrow the US government without organization not a call for right now overthrowing the US government And then also this self-described fascist recorded a break session in between conference presentations. And during that break session, someone recognized me. They asked some very innocent questions of what it’s like teaching at Texas State
University because they’re originally from Texas. Well, again, this self-described fascist took that break session conversation and edited the footage to make it seem like I was discussing my employment at Texas State. during my conference presentation. The next day,
on a Monday, this self-described fascist began a campaign calling for my firing from Texas State University. And two days later, Happening we can say coincidentally or not around the same time of the Charlie Kirk assassination the Kelly dampest president of Texas State University fired me a tenured Professor with no due process whatsoever through a social media post I only
found out once I got home and checked my email but local activists alerted me to this post and So I was fired in violation of tenure without due process, violating Texas state’s own policies, as well as state law and federal constitutional rights contained in the first and 14th amendments. And what this does come in the context of these assaults on higher education and
democracy itself within the United States. In the social media post announcing my termination, President Dampas used inciting violence, accusing me of inciting violence, and that I was a danger to the health and safety of the Texas state community. this language of inciting violence follows the language of far-right politicians who are using such language to target not only socialists like myself but even just
your kind of run-of-the-mill liberal democrats and this is part again of the ongoing assault on democratic rights that is occurring across the country we see this began with attacking the palestinian activism and continues with the terrorism being inflicted on our communities with ICE raids, kidnapping community members off our streets. Many people are calling what’s happening now a new McCarthyism, the targeting of voices critical of U.
S. policy or capitalism itself. From your own experience and knowledge of history, how do you see this current wave of repression comparing to earlier eras of political purges and silencing so people can understand better the history of the United States and then how we can go about supporting our champions, our champions of free speech,
but not just any speech, but speech that is meant to be constructive and life-affirming to those who have too often been oppressed. So give us a little bit of that background and context. And have we indeed seen this kind of tirade in the university context before? Yes, we have. And calling this neo-McCarthyism is accurate.
It goes back to the silencing and censoring that we saw in the 1950s. I am not the first tenured professor fired for political speech and covering working class and labor themes within U. S. history. But where mine’s a little bit different is in previous cases where tenured professors had lost their positions,
there’s at least a process that was followed. Usually it was a predetermined process and often a sham, but at least there was a process followed. And with my case, initially there was no process followed whatsoever. until a judge ordered my reinstatement. And then Texas State University began a process that was basically a hearing of myself in front of the university president.
So it’s basically have a hearing where your prosecutor and judge are one and the same. But going back further, where what’s alarming about what is happening right now regards to free speech for those advocating for a better future, specifically for socialism, for advocating for health care, a decent living,
free college education, this basic needs of working class people. What is going to put this in the context of this current economic crisis, which has been ongoing since 2008, that has only gotten deeper and more intense for working class people. And so as those of us that are advocating and organizing for a better future based on human
needs instead of profit and greed, we become a threat to the system. And you saw this earlier in the 1920s in Italy. the rise of fascism and Mussolini and fascist Italy where they targeted to the universities and then we saw this again in the 1930s under with the rise of the Nazis in Germany where they civically targeted and purged universities of leftists and Marxist academics and there’s a reason for this
Universities are places of learning and higher education. We can have critiques of liberal institutions. I’ve got plenty of them myself, but still liberal institutions like universities serve as the basic foundations of a democratic society. They’re places of debate, exchange, openness and pushing forward innovation. Ideas that once that might have seen marginalized and really off target to begin
with, then become accepted and part of the norms. And so Cracking down on universities follows a long-established pattern, unfortunately, in authoritarianism, not only in the United States but around the world,
of eroding a democratic society. eliminate these and put under control these places of free speech and academic freedom and exchange in order to then carry on further assaults and erosion of democratic rights and a growing kind of a creeping fascism in the United States. And so that’s what you see also with the Trump compact that you just described. This is using the financial purse strings to withholding funds from universities to be able to function and carry out their mission and basically trying to convert
universities from places of higher learning and free speech and debate and innovation into centers of far-right indoctrination by purging the universities of Marxists and those that teach the triumphal history, triumphal celebratory, good history of resistance of working class people. Basic facts, not indoctrination,
but just teaching basic facts of the mistakes, the errors, the correct things, the visions that working class people had for a better future. so silencing history such as that as well as silencing and eliminating um dei programs and also we have a scrub you see a scrubbing of the curriculum relating to gender and women’s studies and issues of sexuality so this is where it begins in
many ways but then we also see the ongoing assaults that are happening in our streets with the ice raids and so this is something that people very much should be alarmed with. I mean, I don’t mean to be alarmist, but we are living in a time when the alarm bells need to be ringing because this assault is real and it is currently happening.
Oh, it’s definitely a time for the Paul Revere, the red coats are coming, only they’re not wearing red, unfortunately. Well, actually, they are the red Republican states. And they’re setting up martial law as testing grounds in our cities in conjunction
with the ICE raids. I’m speaking with Professor Tom Alter, who was fired for essentially. . . Being set up, that’s the first thing, but being set up as a person who, what? Loves people and wants a better condition for humanity and without the kind of stigmatization and bias that is emblematic and in the bloodstream of this country,
which has never been pulled out, root and branch. Well, one of the things I’d like you to talk about and the distinction to me is very interesting. So your speech at a private conference. was deemed rather than just being political as being violent,
a canard, of course, but you were fired as a result of that. And then we have Turning Point USA, which has presumably 3,500 chapters on campuses. And Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk are welcomed on campuses while critical faculty are punished. Now,
what does that contradiction tell us and debunk this nonsense that there’s some sort of concern about humanity and love and nonviolence? What does it mean that we uphold and permit Turning Point to operate on our campuses and then also try to, and this included the Democrats as well. Many, many of the Democrats as well as Republicans uphold the persona of Charlie Kirk. yes um and speaking of democrats the assaults on free speech are did have these
open assaults free speech is always under a threat and it’s always up to us the people to stand up and defend free speech but this intensifying assault on free speech has begun over the last two years on college campuses um under the rule of both democrats and republicans as for people for students and others protesting against the live streamed genocide and using their free speech to oppose a genocide but yet being cracked down on and having their free speech repressed for opposing genocide i mean just let that sink
in here are people seeing a genocide reacting to it like we were taught to react to a genocide and that never again means never again and having their free speech repressed. So that door was open to these broader assaults on free speech that we are seeing now. And we’ve also then learned what kind of these authorities mean by free speech and free speech for who in regards to Turning Point USA. While Turning Point USA claims to be talking about free speech,
but what they are doing is actually organizing to harm people. There’s one thing when you debate and discuss ideas and policies, but when your specific goal on campuses is to target minorities, oppressed people, vulnerable individuals, and have the expressed goal of basically doxing professors and getting them fired,
that is really not a free speech issue at all. For us in the working class, it’s more of a self-defense issue. And we’ve seen how this has played out in Texas in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination. There are two examples I can point to where you had at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where a young African-American woman student was protesting a Charlie Kirk memorial in public.
This was a memorial in a public space. Campuses are supposed to be free speech zones. And here was a student using her free speech rights to protest against the policies of Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk. And she was targeted by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. and then expelled from Texas Tech University. Similarly,
on my own campus of Texas State University, there was a memorial held for Charlie Kirk in the free speech zone on the campus. And so other students at my majority minority university at Texas State, which also has a lot of working class and first generation college students, understandably, a large number of students came out to protest against the Charlie Kirk Memorial. There was a young black man student.
He reacted to the this Charlie Kirk Memorial, where some of the Turning Point USA participants were hurling the N word at students as well as the B word at women. This student reacted by putting his fingers to the student protesting the Charlie Kirk Memorial, expressed his free speech rights by putting his fingers up against his neck and making a motion of indicating the place where Charlie Kirk was assassinated,
and then he spit on the ground. He was expressing his free speech rights in reaction to this Turning Point USA Memorial and having the N-word hurled at him and other students. The governor of Texas then got on X, put out a post saying, find this student and expel him. And then within the hour or so, the student was dutifully located by Texas State University president. The student was put on the phone and told either that he had to withdraw from the university
and if he did not withdraw from the university being misled and told that if he did not withdraw he would be expelled and then he would never be able to enroll in another university private or public in texas ever again so this young man a freshman without legal counsel withdrew from the university. And so this was, nothing was made whatsoever of the context that he responded and that he was using
his free speech and nothing was said about what the Turning Point USA people were doing to him. So you can see this is a one-sided assault on free speech. And we see who the defenders of free speech and democratic rights are. It is those of us in the working class, with our social justice organizations, socialists,
and all of those that are concerned with basic democratic rights. Because in many ways, for the far right, the masks are off. They are not playing by their own rules any longer. And so if they’re going to concede democratic rights and constitutional rights to us, we’ll take it. We’ll take the mantle of fulfilling the promises of freedom and liberty that this
country was founded with, with all of its contradictions. But there was a promise to do better. And it’s that promise that many of us are trying to fulfill and organizing around. You know, one of the things that you, of course,
made me think of, although I always think of this in the context of gutting people’s rights or never allowing them to flower equal rights and justice, and that is the issue of how the right-wing campus expansion works. connect actually to efforts to gut diversity, equity, inclusion,
which we tend not to, and almost, I think, terribly mistakenly, and maybe based on our own white supremacist ideas and chauvinism, which all of us possess to one degree or another who are Caucasian, The idea of the right-wing campus expansion’s efforts to gut diversity,
equity, and inclusion as part of this, a strategic part of clamping down on free speech. Do you think it’s critically important to understand that as a component part of these attacks? Yes. Yes, it’s extremely important. They have a very narrow view of the world,
which is based around a hierarchical patriarchal Christian nationalist white supremacy. and they are out to in their minds defend and squash anything that threatens that world view now other people can exist in the world as long as they do not threaten their very much their their right-wing authoritarian worldview. And that’s just not the world that we live in.
The world is a beautifully diverse place with all kinds of cultures and peoples and belief systems. And it’s always been that diversity is what made us strong as a people all over the world internationally. And that, they can’t have that. They can’t have that. I mean, because we’re the majority.
And once the working class majority gets together, we have the power and we have the ability to remake the world and how we see fit, putting prioritizing basic human needs and rights first over their individual drive for wealth and profit motivated by greed. And so it’s very important to see what’s going on right now, particularly at this time of economic crisis and as the United States’ global empire is weakening.
So then they turn on us more here at home in the United States, seeking to divide us and repress anybody that stands up against their system. What can listeners, students, or other faculty do to stand with you And then tell us, aside from that, just in the last minutes that we have, what’s at stake if cases like yours go unchallenged?
yes for just for helping me um my case which again this is my case i’m it’s a broad fight for democratic rights they can go to defend tom alter dot org that’s a-l-t-e-r is my last name so it’s defend tom alter dot org there are a number of campaigns that people can participate in particular we’re looking at targeting the the board of regents to to hear my appeal to be reinstated so folks can participate in that email campaign but what’s at stake is our basic rights our first amendment rights to freedom of
press freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and even the 14th amendment as well one of the historic reconstruction amendments which states that life liberty or property cannot be taken away without due process i had tenure that’s a form of property And taking away property without due process is a weakening of the 14th Amendment. So a lot is at stake right here. It’s not just,
yes, myself individually, but we’re talking about a basic erosion of the 1st and 14th Amendments. So this is why it’s so important for people to become involved in all different kinds of ways in your own communities and participating in struggles both nationally and internationally. And give the website to get more information about your case.
And then I do believe for our Jersey listeners, you’re going to be speaking in Jersey. And so why don’t we just give people the coordinates for that? So give the website so people can get involved. Professor Alta’s struggle is a part of a larger fight. Yes, as I said, the fight didn’t start with me. It doesn’t end with me. We’re going to keep on fighting.
You can go to defendtomalter. org. And then it will be on the campus of Rutgers University on Friday, November 7th at noon in Murray Hall 301. And you can register for that event called Fighting for a Right to Teach and Learn through the AAUP chapter of Rutgers University. And you’ve just given me an idea.
And I think it’s long overdue for Pacifica to really host a national teaching on our many stations and affiliates on freedom of speech, real speech. Because we need to defend critical thought, to protect those who speak, speak for Palestine and the oppressed, and to confront the racist,
anti-intellectual forces reshaping our campuses. I want to thank you so much for being with us and what you do. And I do believe you sound like a socialist. How wonderful. Proud one. Indeed. And we’re proud to have a socialist.
Takes one to be one. How can listeners, again, who wish to stand in solidarity, just give us that website one more time? Yes. To fight in the tradition of Eugene Debs, you can go to defendtomalter.
org. And you can contact Texas State University’s administration and join broader campaigns for academic freedom and the right to dissent and rehire Professor Tom Alter. He’s exactly the kind of educator we want on our campuses. Professor Alter, thanks for being with us. We’ll have you back and we’ll continue to pay close attention to your case.
Thank you so much. Well, thank you. And we now we go from Professor Alter and the fight back there to another critical issue that we have to be involved in. And what is that? Well, we are here to head up to Harlem. And to say that while the state clamps down on dissent here,
it wages economic warfare abroad, strangling nations that refuse to bow to U. S. domination. So we’re off to Harlem, where people gathered under the statue of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to say, hands off Venezuela, lift the barcade on Cuba. Yesterday was October 25th.
The South African Development Community designated October 25th as Anti-Sanctions Day because the United States and Britain in 2001 brought sanctions against Zimbabwe because they had the actual temerity and nerve to take their country back from those people who had colonized them and settled and fought against them and tried to defeat them and lost in a national liberation war. The United States sanctions against Zimbabwe are still in effect 24 years later. So when we understand the fight against the sanctions against Cuba,
we’re talking about the same players on the other side. It’s the Western countries. It’s Western imperialism. They pick and choose who they’re going to deal with. Most sanctions that the United States has are against African countries. Quiet as it’s kept. You wouldn’t even know what’s happening.
So we think it’s important that when people hear about Cuba, that we also hear about the internationalism that Cuba represents, that they understand if the sanctions against Cuba can be defeated, they can also be defeated around the world, particularly in Africa. We know that the resistance. .
. set out by the Sahelian States, the Association of Sahelian States is a problem for the United States. It’s a problem for France. It’s backing them up and saying that we are not going to agree and be part of the neocolonialism that has been instituted even though we’ve had political independence.
Our economies have been tied to the Western economies. So these are the things that we need people to look at. Trump is trying to provoke a response from Venezuela so then he can say, oh, there really is a war going on. And when he gets that, then he’ll be able to get around that little Supreme Court decision that says,
well, you can’t invoke the War Powers Act because there’s no war going on. Once he’s able to establish that, the repercussions in this country will be felt immediately. All the things that have put a temporary stop on what he’s doing which does not even deal with all the things he’s actually doing, will happen multifold. So we want people to know that. We want people to fight and finally
The other day they were playing the tape of Mandela on Ted Koppel when Ted Koppel said, well, why would you support Cuba and Palestine? Because these are anti-democratic, whatever it was. And Mandela says, you cannot tell us who our friends are. So we have to understand that when we fight,
for the end of the sanctions against Cuba will also have to fight and include that the struggle for the demand against the genocide in Palestine. I’ll end with the way I started. straight ahead. Thank you so much, Roger. I want to read a statement from an organization, Friends of the Congo,
that they sent to us that stands with Cuba. Friends of the Congo stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and demand an immediate end to the inhumane U. S. blockade. For over 60 years, this illegal policy has violated international law and crossed the Cuban people
$170. 7 billion resources that could have strengthened healthcare, education, and social development. The blockade affects every part of Cuban life, from hospitals unable to access dialysis machines due to US sanctions, to classrooms forced to adapt through creative solutions like holding lessons in
museums. The blockade affects all major sectors, education, agriculture, food, production, culture,
sports, tourism, etc. Yet despite these conditions, Cuba continues to embody resilience, creativity, care,
and innovation. One of the best places in the world for black women to give birth. a nation that continues to advance medicine, including a recent treatment for dementia. Children actively participate in community decision-making and intergenerational environments that offer a strong social infrastructure. Cuba’s solidarity reaches far beyond its borders. The same island that welcomes freedom fighters like Assata Shakur has sent doctors,
teachers and engineers across the global south, including Africa. This is what true South to South solidarity looks like. The attempt to choke Cuba The attempt to choke Cuba is an assault not just on the Cuban people, but on all who fight for peace, self-determination,
and liberation from Congo to Sudan, Palestine, and Haiti. Cuba is Africa. Cuba is black. Friends of the Congo stand with the Cuban Revolution and call for an end to the blockade. Viva la revolucion.
Viva Cuba. Thank you, friends of Congo. Now I would like to call up our brother from the Puerto Rican youth movement for self-determination. Hey, everybody. My name is Ed Ventura. I’m a part of UPI,
otherwise known as Juventud Unida por la Independencia or the Youth United for Independence. I’m a part of the Bronx chapter. And we are a youth and student movement dedicated to educating, organizing, and mobilizing the masses towards a free and independent Puerto Rico. And I’ll start this off by saying that our movement has been born from the fire of
a dream that has burned for generations. A dream of sovereignty, of dignity, and ultimately a dream of a free, independent, socialist Puerto Rico. And I’m here to tell you that a large reason that this dream lives on,
a large reason that we exist and we walk and fight on these same blocks that people did before us is because of the unwavering fight, influence and support of Cuba towards our movement and our revolution. For over a hundred years, Cuba has been a beacon for our cause and has supported us every step of the way in each and every way which they could. And I’ll start this off with a story about an experience I had last summer where I
was stopping by labor union offices in Puerto Rico to learn more about what’s going on with the workers there. And there was one particular man I spoke to where as soon as he heard independence in her name, he stopped and said, wait, independence,
you are barking up the wrong tree. What, you want to be like Venezuela? Do you want to be like Cuba? And I responded with yes. Yes, in fact, I do. Because in our communities and in the media, you know,
they’ll tell us that Cuba is the boogeyman, a monster to be feared. They want us to be afraid of socialism. And what it ultimately is is not a fear of socialism, it’s a fear of oneself. And I take this back to a quote that the great Fred Hampton once said where I think that we’ve got to understand that people by the very nature are revolutionary and we have to understand that we should not be scared of socialism.
If you’re scared of socialism, you are scared of yourself. You’re scared of your own power. You’re scared of your own capacity to care for your community and your own right to self-determination. And that is what they are truly afraid of. Because what Cuba is is a shining example. Living,
breathing proof that that very self-determination is a testament to a resistance against the very same colonialism and imperialism that strangles Puerto Ricans today. And has sought to break the spirit of Cubans for decades. And they are still here and still fighting. And for that, we thank you. We stand on the shoulders of giants who understood this shared struggle.
We remember the words of Jose Martí, who taught us that a just principle from the depths of a cave is more powerful than an army. We draw from the strength of Ramon Betances, who dreamed of a free Caribbean from imperialism through Spain or the United States. And we honor the legacy of Puerto Rican warriors like Juan Rius Rivera,
who fought in Cuba’s 10 years war because he knew that our fates were intertwined. He knew that a fight for Cuba’s freedom was a fight for Puerto Rico’s freedom. And in the spirit of that, I’ll end this off with a quote from Fidel where he said, we shall never desert our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters even if there are no relations within the United States for a hundred years. And for that I say,
Boricuas, Puerto Ricans united all across the diaspora here and on the island will continue to stand and walk and fight with you the way you have with us. We demand an end to all the blockades, all the sanctions that are preventing key medical care, that are preventing food, that are preventing infrastructure from being rebuilt in the name of imperialism
and capitalism. Thank you so much. Que viva Puerto Rico Libre. Que viva la revolución. Free the world from imperialism. Viva Puerto Rico Libre! You know, I don’t know if you know this, but
if we really calculated the damage of how much this illegal immoral blockade has caused against cuba we’re talking about 21 trillion dollars 21 trillion dollars it’s shame shame yes and it’s our tax-paying money that has allowed this to happen for more than 60 plus years. I’m going to ask Shohini Das to come forward. She represents a group of young people who are using social media as a weapon to challenge the blockade.
The group is called Kalata’s Warriors. Shohini, Hi, I’m Shohini from Carlothis Warriors. We are a group of young people who returned from traveling to Cuba last December. We went in honor of the International Decade for the People of African Descent Conference held in Havana last December. And since returning,
we’ve been seeing how much media we’ve been fed and lied to be fed in the media about Cuba, about the revolution of Cuba, about the people of Cuba, about socialism, and we particularly have been noticing the current attacks and disinformation about the Cuban medical brigades.
So the Cuban medical brigades have been providing for over 60 plus years key health care to over 160 countries around the world, particularly in the global south as an effort to build solidarity among the global south in African countries, Caribbean countries, Latin American countries. providing eye vision health care,
life-saving surgeries, medicine, quality health care, quality doctors, and medical infrastructure that wouldn’t be there without Cuban medical brigades. And so today I want to invite you all to follow our Instagram page, Carlota’s Warriors for Cuba.
The four is a number four. Meet me after if you need to see the Instagram handle. But we have been posting and sharing the truth about the Cuban Medical Brigades, highlighting even some stories from people who’ve received health care from the Cuban Medical Brigades, particularly in Caribbean countries like Jamaica. Belize and we want to continue to tell the truth of why it’s important to save
these Cuban medical brigades in the face of the United States currently posing sanctions on countries who are receiving this health care across the Caribbean and to boil it down right when the Cuban medical brigades are attacked this results in death, right? Results in death across the Caribbean, African countries who receive this health care. And so we believe not only is it important to defend Cuban sovereignty and the Cuban Medical Brigades,
but also the sovereignty of these nations who choose to make these agreements with the Cuban Medical Brigades to provide health care for their people. Also in that name, we call to defend Cuban sovereignty and the end U. S. blockade on Cuba and all sanctions across the world posed by the United States government. And viva Cuba! Okay, thank you, Carlitos Warriors.
Just another fact. six days under the blockade is equal to the funding required to import a year’s worth of consumables such as cotton, gauze, syringes, needles, sutras,
catheters, and IV equipment amongst others. Just imagine that. Let’s have a little culture. We have a brother here who came to see what’s going on. And he has a very important contribution to make. All right.
Paul, I’m sorry. Afterwards, I’m going to call it a safer. Okay. All right. Jason. Jason. All right.
Thank you, brother. This brother has end the blockade of Cuba on his accordion there. So that’s great. Thank you. You know, there’s always a sister or brother in the community that we can depend on. who takes their education seriously, right? Who have reached the point of whenever we call on Sister Cordell from right here,
she’s available. And the other thing that’s important about this New York State Senator is the fact that she was responsible for making sure that there was street name for the Black Panther Party, that another street sign was meant for Nomsa Brass. And there’s so many other things that this sister has done in the Senate that we don’t know about.
And a couple of years ago, 25 New York state senators decided that the blockade was impacting the state of New York in many ways. There’s a cancer center up in the Rockwell Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York that’s doing trials for lung cancer. And certain folks in Congress attempted to block that research. Cuba has now found a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Will we have access to it? No. But it’s people like Sister Cordell who gets the word out. to those who want to sit in the backdrop and don’t want to do anything. And so, as I was saying a couple of years ago, 25 New York state senators demanded that Biden lift the blockade against Cuba.
And without any fear, her name is listed there. She called for Cuba to be removed from the state sponsors of terrorism list. and to lift the blockade. And we’re hoping that soon she will lead a delegation to Cuba of her colleagues so that they can see for themselves what’s going on. I invite you to do that. Thank you so much,
Rosemary, and thank you to everybody that’s here today and all of you who have always been here, Omawali and Roger, thank you. Thank you for holding the line because these issues get buried, and we need them to constantly be.
. . brought to our attention and we have to keep it on the front line make sure that we’re remembering and we’re understanding all the layers and especially during this time you know this blockade represents nothing more than even what’s going on right here in our own country trying to invisible disappear black people and other people of color trying to minimalize
people disrespecting cultures disrespecting other people’s leadership and it’s time for this to end and also picking fights with people you don’t agree with and that’s not fair It is not fair because you don’t approve of what I do and because I don’t listen to what you say that you get to retaliate against me. So all this is is a retaliation. It’s time for it to be ended.
The UN, I’m sure, has voted and probably will continue to vote. Most of the world knows that it’s time for the blockade to be lifted. And I agree with it. I agree with everything that we’re doing. And I am looking forward to any more actions we can take, especially actions that are preventing us from getting valuable cures and valuable medicine.
When you leave them out, you leave out all of those things. And it’s just interesting that people Don’t care. Just to uplift and uphold white supremacy, we will risk all those things. We will throw all those things away that could benefit everybody. We won’t breathe air if it means that we have to leave people alone. So that’s what it is.
And we have to recognize it for what it is. So I stand with you here today, all of you. I’ve seen you out here over the years. Before I was elected, now that I’m elected, hold the line. I’m with you. You have friends. Thank you so much, State Senator Clear.
It’s great to have allies like this in the State Senate and hopefully in the city government in the next period as we move our struggle forward. There we go. Cuba see, blockay oh no. Cuba see, blockay oh no. Cuba see, blockay oh no. Cuba see, blockay oh no.
Cuba see, blockay oh no. U. S. hands off Cuba. End the embargo now. U. S.hands off Cuba. End the embargo now. U. S. hands off Cuba. End the embargo now. U.S. hands off Cuba. End the embargo now. U. S. hands off Cuba, end the embargo now. U.S. hands off Cuba, end the embargo now. U. S. hands off Cuba, end the embargo now. U. S. hands off Cuba, end the embargo now. Brothers, sisters, whether it’s right here at your workplace, at your churches, synagogues, mosques,regardless of differences of religion, etc. ,
The example of the Cuban people is an example for working people and farmers everywhere, particularly here in the United States. It is in our interest to defend Cuba’s right to its sovereignty,
to campaign for the ending of the blockade against Cuba. Cuban Americans particularly have various opinions on the Cuban government at this point. But one thing they are more, not less, but more united around these days is ending the U. S. blockade, ending the U. S. economic strangulation of their country.
We have to stand united. We have to realize that an injury to one is an injury to all, more and more. We are beginning to realize this, and we will, I believe, whether it’s around the issue of immigration and the role of ICE in our communities,
or whether it’s in regards to defending independence for Puerto Rico, the right for the Puerto Rican to decide their destiny, or whether it’s this issue here, ending the blockade against Cuba. For those of you who know of youth between 18 and 30, this might have been mentioned already, who are interested in medical school,
you can go to medical school in Cuba free of charge. Contact IFCO pastors for peace for more information about this program. Cuba has been doing this for decades for people around the world. For US residents, the program has existed since 2000. Cuba, by this, Cuba once again shows us it doesn’t merely give what it has left over,
but in spite of its economic difficulties, it shares what it has, not merely what it has left over. People might ask, well, how is Cuba able to even do this with all of the economic difficulties it has? Because its economy is organized differently.
And it’s organized differently along socialist principles because these principles working people in Cuba defend in spite of differences that they may have around one issue or more issues in Cuba itself. It is in our interest once again, working people, farmers here in the United States, to demand the U.
S. end the blockade against Cuba. There is another way. Thank you. Let us continue to chant. End the blockade against Cuba. U.
S. hands off. Thank you, Jason. I am Jose Alfaro from Harlem, Palestine. for justice and liberation peace walk we have a walk every month we also have a monthly dinner bring together the community it’s really important that at this time in Latin America and the Caribbean when Cuba and Venezuela are under attack that we
have to stand up And we have to educate and talk with the community about the significance of these struggles. Because these struggles are the same struggles that we’re waging here in Harlem and throughout Manhattan and throughout the city and throughout this country against fascism. And this is a time that we have to come together. And we have to unite all our different struggles,
and the brother before was talking about independencia by Puerto Rico. And all these different struggles have to be tied in together. We can’t sit in our little corner and just be involved in this struggle or that struggle. But we have to think about how we can begin to unite these struggles. And just the other thing that I wanted to say is that it’s really important that at this time historically, when our enemy has grown stronger with that fascist in the White House,
and of course they’re all right wingers, whoever’s been in the White House, but this one who’s particularly fascist and right wing We have to join organizations and we have to make sure that those organizations are working with one another. We have to form broad coalitions to be able to fight back and defend our communities. Whether it’s in our building and ICE tries to come in, we have to defend our neighbors.
Whether it’s on our street, whether it’s in our neighborhood. A project that some of us have going is we’re going in Washington Heights, we’re going to stores and talking to the workers there, many of whom are undocumented, talking to them about what their rights are, but also talking with that whole community about how we need to come together when ICE appears.
And the National Guard appears because be sure that if Mandami is elected, the National Guard will be here. And this is not an endorsement for Mandami, but I am saying. . . that the right wing is attempting to take advantage of every situation that they can in order to attack immigrants,
people of color, working people. We’ve all got to come together and one area to come together is defense of Cuba. It’s linked to Palestine, to Venezuela, etc. So, el pueblo unido jamás será vencido. El pueblo unido jamás será vencido. El pueblo. You’ve been listening to Building Bridges, produced and hosted by Mimi Rosenberg.
