Last night Zarah Sultana came out with a classic loony left take: that the scenes of protesting in Cuba over the anti-civil and economic freedom regime there is actually the fault of imperialist America.
The US has waged economic war on Cuba for nearly 60 years. Its blockade of the country is estimated to have cost Cuba $753,000,000,000+.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 12, 2021
If you care about Cuba, the key demand is for Washington to end its economic war on the country, just as the UN has repeatedly demanded.
Guido struggles to see how Zarah’s claim that those who “want to help Cuba” should focus on the US would end the scenes of mass violence by Cuban authorities against their citizens. It’s particularly brazen given just last week Sultana boasted about voting against the government’s Police and Crime Bill on the basis it was “an attack on our democratic right to protest”. Sultana is silent about the Cuban dictatorship’s arrest and beating of a protesting priest…
It seems that for Zarah the right of people to protest only extends to Western citizens complaining about capitalist systems; railing against the failing communist Cuban state just isn’t cricket. So far more than 100 people have been arrested or are missing on the island following Sunday’s protests. No doubt Sultana’s 401 majority will once again value her campaigning on issues directly affecting them…
The hard left’s romanticised example of a successful socialist nation, Cuba, is currently experiencing thousands-strong protests by its citizens over the collapsing economy, lack of freedoms and the country’s handling of the pandemic. Videos from Havana show the freedom-loving protestors shouting “Down with the dictatorship!”. There have also been chants of “down with communism!” and “freedom!”
In response, the military dictatorship has ordered police to make mass arrests and they have been seen beating protestors – further emphasising the protestors’ calls for improved civil liberties. Presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on television to accuse them of being provoked by US-hired mercenaries trying to destabilise the country, calling on government loyalists to “fight… into the street, revolutionaries!” Guido sends his best to the brave freedom fighters…
Local media in Hong Kong is reporting that Cathay Pacific airline’s CEO, Rupert Hogg, responded to demands from China’s Civil Aviation Administration to hand over a list of Cathay Pacific employees who had participated in the protests with admirable defiance.
According to unconfirmed reports, he responded by putting only his own name on the list provided. If the reports are true it would go some way to explaining his ‘resignation’ yesterday. Beijing has control of a big shareholding in the airline. It might not be as brave as the man in Tienanmen Square who stood alone against the tanks, it was the right response and he must have known it would cost him his job.
UPDATE: We re-emphasise that the veracity of local reports is contested.
Tonight, Labour controlled Camden Council will hear from Revolutionary Communist Group, who will be mounting a defence of Corbyn on anti-Semitism and demanding the Council repeals its adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. Camden knows the group is extreme, it sent along two Prevent officers to a RCG meeting in September…
Full council meetings rarely hear from non-councillors, they rejected every single request from local residents to speak last year. Seemingly it’s different for literal revolutionary communists…
The council’s opposition leader Oliver Cooper has accused Camden Council of allowing the RCG to “hijack council meetings with their agenda, while refusing to let others speak… Camden has been identified as a high risk council for terrorist, with residents, former pupils, and students convicted of terrorist offences in recent years.” All is not well in Camden Labour…
Over the last two weeks, media elites have decided that communism is the plat du jour. It has been featured everywhere from Elle to Teen Vogue and Ash Sarkar has shot to internet fame for her eloquent phrase “I’m a communist you idiot”.
But Opinium has found that communism has a net approval rating of -52, a full 38 points behind libertarianism. Guido also notes that capitalism polls as more popular than socialism…
This is the moment a crowd of BJP supporters, the UKIPpers of India, bulldozed a statue of Lenin after communists lost control of India’s Tripura state. The statue, in Belonia town, had stood for the last five of the Communist Party of India’s 25 year rule over the region. Tapas Dutta, a party official, told The Indian Express newspaper:
“After the statue fell, its head was dismembered from the body. Then the BJP workers played football with Lenin’s head.”
Sound…
