By Bill Fletcher - May 10, 2013

Assata Shakur has never denied having been a member of the Black Liberation Army. She has also never denied being a revolutionary. She has a very well developed critique of US capitalism, imperialism and racism. In no case has anything ever associated with terrorism been alleged against her...[T]he armed actions that were taken never conformed to any approximation of the notion of “terrorism,” i.e., the use of military/violent actions against civilians in order to advance a political agenda.

By Assata Shakur - May 08, 2013

My name is Assata Shakur...Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984...I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.

For years, the international economic crisis has been exerting pressure on the local economy, mainly through falling nickel prices...the increase in food prices (Cuba must import 80% of the food that it consumes...and scarcity of credit. What has prevented the economy from collapsing, from 2008 until now, is the financing in various ways that Venezuela (the biggest economic partner since 2003) gives Cuba.

Earlier reports pronounced Castro dead or dying. Each one was false. Given their source, they were little more than wishful thinking. Dark forces wanted Castro eliminated for decades. Even in semi-retirement they want him gone.

Cuba's leaders are not only proud of this miserable propaganda, but they go so far as to consider their philanthropic values ennobled by their alleged similarity to the Christian slogans promoted by the Pope. That's why they aren't bothered by the fact that the Cuban campaign for values actually has a common denominator with the clerical one: anti-materialism. Both sides want to convince the people to give up their materialistic ambitions, their need for some kind of modest prosperity, or at least a secure survival. The only difference the two ideologies have to offer concerns their reason and purpose.

By Bill Van Auken - 17 April 2012

For Obama, the two-day summit was an unmitigated fiasco, with the positions of his government opposed by every other participating nation outside of Canada, and news reports of the gathering in the United States overshadowed by a prostitution scandal at a Cartagena hotel involving 11 members of the US president’s Secret Service detail and five American military personnel.

By Rafael Azul - WSWS

On a three-day visit to Cuba this week, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Vatican’s seal of approval to the government’s policies of opening the Cuban economy to private property relations and exploitation by global transnational corporations...“The Cuban church will not fight for the poor. It prefers to observe official protocol. Beggars bother it, as do the quantity of the mentally ill that show up at church asking for help.”

By Marti Hiken and Luke Hiken - Dissident Voice

At a time when the U.S. pretends to be a beacon of freedom and liberty to the world, one would expect that Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp – a symbol of blatant repression — would not exist. It logically would be seen as an anathema the U.S. would want to keep hidden. Instead, the U.S. flaunts it like a teenager showing off his muscles.

Wednesday, September 21 2011 - Infoshop News

The Communist Party of Cuba's VI Congress has just closed with an endorsement of the liberal reforms (“to each according to his labors”) promised in the realm of the economy: but along with these come cuts in social services and an increased presence for the military and for technocrats in the machinery of government, with a reduction in the presence of intellectuals and workers.

By Simon Butler - Green Left Weekly

A WikiLeaks cable released on August 29 has revealed federal Labor MP for Melbourne Michael Danby offered to help the US embassy promote a “Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People”. It was a May 21 2008 initiative of the George W Bush US administration designed to pressure the Cuban government.

By the Cuban Foreign Ministry - September 3, 2011

The Republic of Cuba does not recognize the Transitional National Council...and will only recognize a government established in Libya in a legitimate manner, without foreign intervention, through the free, sovereign, and common will of the brother people of Libya...Under the grotesque pretense of protecting civilians, NATO has murdered thousands of them...The Foreign Ministry demands the immediate end to NATO bombings...and reiterates the urgent need to permit the Libyan people to find a peaceful negotiated solution...

On September 13, 2010, Al Jazeera's Juan Jacomino said all Cubans, including private sector ones, will still get state-provided free health-care, education, and other longstanding social services, the constitutionally mandated hallmark of Cuba's revolution.

By WILLIAM BLUM - June 6, 2011

The United States sees the Cuban health system and Havana's sharing of such as a means of Cuba winning friends and allies in the Third World, particularly Latin America; a situation sharply in conflict with long-standing US policy to isolate Cuba...The United States...bans the sale to Cuba of vital medical drugs and devices...Finally, we have the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) immigration program, which encourages Cuban doctors...to defect and enter the US immediately as refugees.

Washington's war on Cuba.

My new book Che Guevara: A Biography has just been released. This book is the most up-to-date biography of Che Guevara now available and is written for a new generation of readers interested in learning about him and his legacy.