RCPB(ML) adds its voice to those of the Palestinian people and their Resistance in mourning the death of the Palestinian freedom fighter and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed in battle against the Israeli Zionist armed forces in Rafah.

30,000 people taking part in the emergency demonstration in London to oppose the continuing Israeli massacres of men, women and children in Gaza and supporting their right to resist, Saturday October 19 2024

Yahya Sinwar, 61, had been a Hamas leader in Gaza since 2017. He was appointed leader of the Hamas Political Bureau in early August of this year after the assassination of the previous leader of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 31.

"We mourn the death of the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim," Khalil Hayyeh, a Hamas official based in Qatar, said in a video broadcast on Al Jazeera. Sinwar "died as a hero and a martyr, fighting against the Israeli army," Khalil Hayyeh said. Hamas "will continue its struggle until the establishment of a Palestinian state on all Palestinian land, with Jerusalem as its capital," he added.

Emergency demonstration, Downing Street, Saturday October 19 2024

Hayyeh also said that "the Israeli hostages will not be released as long as the aggression against the Gaza Strip continues and our prisoners in Israeli prisons are not released".

Hamas' armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement saying: "More than a year after the Al-Aqsa Flood battle ... leader Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas, rose as a martyr, facing the enemy head-on with his weapon drawn, engaging with the occupying army at the forefront of the most dangerous combat zones in Rafah, southern Gaza."

Sinwar "died as a martyr and a hero alongside his jihadist brothers," Al-Qassam Brigades said.

"The criminal enemy thinks that by killing the great leaders of the Resistance, such as Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, or Arouri, it can force the Resistance to retreat. The Resistance will continue until it achieves its goal," Al-Qassam Brigades said.

The Palestinian Resistance is supported by an international movement of global reach of unwavering support for the Palestinian just cause. It demands an end to the genocide against Gaza, the liberation of Palestine and defends the people's right of return. The Resistance exists and is growing.

The Resistance forces have made clear they will persist in their just cause of freedom for Palestine, and the world's peoples stand with them. It is the Resistance forces who are in step with the forces which make history.

Our Party expresses its deepest sympathies to the Palestinian people, to the Resistance Movement Hamas and all Resistance forces for the loss of Yahya Sinwar. Let us all stand as one with the Palestinian Resistance and its martyrs.

Trade union workplace day of action, October 10, 2024

Portsmouth

Kings College London and NEU

Kings College London and Westminster Kingsway College

https://youtu.be/va6DRVH-BIk

Book review by Mícheál Mac Donncha, reproduced from An Phoblacht, October 7, 2024

As I write, the Israeli army is using Irish United Nations peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon as human shields. The Israelis are again invading Lebanon and killing its citizens. And in the past year Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble and continues to carry on a genocide that so far has taken the lives of over 40,000 Palestinians.

The Israeli terror state from its beginning has been sustained by successive US governments, who have nurtured it as a key ally of the American empire. But it was the British Empire which handed Palestine over to Zionism in the first place and this timely book examines how the deed was done by deliberately deceiving the Arabs of the Middle East and then lying about it for decades.

For over a century the Palestinian people have known the oppression and treachery of empires. When the Turkish Empire joined Germany and Austria-Hungary at the outbreak of the First World War, the British saw their opportunity to expand in the Middle East from their base in Egypt.

Henry McMahon was the British High Commissioner in Egypt 1915-17. Although he was descended from a Gaelic clan and his great-grandfather was a United Irishman from County Down, McMahon's family had for long been on the side of the empire and he rose to the top in the British Raj in India. As the British fought the Germans for world domination, McMahon's new Middle East post became a crucial theatre of war. It was there that they perfected the policy of deception which gives this book its title.

The British saw that the Arabs could be useful in the war against the Turks and so McMahon wrote to Sharif Hussein of Mecca, a religious and political leader for Arabs and Muslims, to enlist his support. In return for leading an armed uprising against the Turks, the Arabs were promised a new independent state which would include Palestine. The British would later deny that Palestine was included in this pledge and much of the book is concerned with discrediting that denial which it does comprehensively. In fact, the most damning indictment of the British claim was the refusal of successive British governments to publish the McMahon-Hussein correspondence because, by their own secret admission, it supported the Arab claims and its revelation would be a huge embarrassment to the British government.

The British and French carve up the Middle East, 1922

By the time the correspondence was finally revealed it was too late to make any difference because by then the British policy of deception had long done its work. While promising the Arabs an independent state, the British were also promising the Zionists a homeland in Palestine, a promise that they did keep. The British occupied Palestine after the war and facilitated Zionist immigration and dispossession of the Palestinians. This was part of a much bigger carve-up. Under an agreement with the French Empire, the British got Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, while the French got Syria and Lebanon.

It is essential to understand this imperialist background if we want to fully understand the conflict in the Middle East today. Israel exists because British imperialism saw Zionists as useful allies in the region and there was a racist basis to this.

While anti-Semitism was rife in the West, many also saw Jews as superior to Arabs and bringing 'Western civilization' to the region. Arthur Balfour, in whose name the British promise to the Zionists was made, said he was "quite unable to see why Heaven or any other Power should object to us telling the Muslim what he ought to think". Lloyd George went further. He described "the Jews virile, brave, determined, intelligent; the Arabs decadent, dishonest and producing little beyond eccentrics, influenced by the romance and silence of the desert". Winston Churchill was also deeply racist. Former Cabinet Minister Malcom McDonald recalled: "He [Churchill] told me I was crazy to help the Arabs, because they were a backward people who ate nothing but camel dung." There are echoes of this racism in the Netanyahu regime today.

Both Lloyd George and Churchill were key practitioners of the policy of deception in the Middle East in the early '20s. At the very same time they were following a similar policy in Ireland. The Treaty and Partition were accompanied by both deception and violence. The British repeatedly made contradictory commitments to nationalists and unionists, the crowning deception being Article 12 of the Treaty. Lloyd George convinced Collins and Griffith that it would establish a Boundary Commission that would make Irish unity inevitable; Churchill assured the Unionists that what they had they would hold. Palestine and Ireland - parallel lies.

It is a mark of a humane society that it not only cares for the ill and vulnerable but that the well-being of all is guaranteed, that health care is part of the very fabric of society. However, the direction in which the NHS has been moving is towards a business orientated capital-centred public and private health system and away from a publicly-provided human-centred health care system. A consequence of this perspective is that the concerns of neither health staff nor the public at large who demand a caring health service have been listened to and paid attention to.

In appointing Lord Darzi in July "to establish the state of the nation's health service", the new Labour Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting commented, "Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken." This is to begin by de-humanising the situation. Where has Wes Streeting been for the past years of this millennium when campaign after people's campaign has demanded that the present and future of the NHS be safeguarded? There is no hint from Wes Streeting that it is the very direction that successive governments have been taking the NHS that has been intensifying the health care crisis, taking the NHS ever more in the direction of privatisation, increased burden on nurses and health care staff, lack of investment where it is needed to fulfil the just demands that the populace make on it, and refusal to acknowledge that health care is a right. Even less is there a recognition that a healthy population is the prerequisite to producing the material well-being of society. Rather, in the direction spelled out under New Labour, the watchword has been "investment with reform", which is now declared to mean "reform first, investment last" in the present. Nor has there been any recognition that in this pay-the-rich pro-business governance, there should be instead an obligation of the employers of a healthy (and educated) workforce to foot society's bill for the benefit of exploiting this workforce.

So that is the context in which West Streeting has suddenly woken up and commissioned Lord Darzi to "leave no stone unturned" and "to speak truth to power". Lord Darzi, a surgeon and former Labour health minister, was charged by the Health and Social Care Secretary to "conduct an immediate and independent investigation of the NHS" in England. On September 12, nine weeks later that report was published by the government [1]. It highlighted what everyone knew that the NHS was indeed in "serious trouble". On the same day of the release of the Darzi report, Keir Starmer addressed the press at a King's Fund event also claiming that the NHS is in a "critical condition" but that "there will be no extra money without reform" and that the government plans to announce its 10-year plan for the NHS in the New Year.

The Darzi Report

In his report, Darzi found "ballooning" waiting times and delays in A&E and cancer care, government "funding promises broken" and massive "shortfalls in capital spending" by government were among many issues he highlights. However, Darzi does not mention the huge profiteering from the private sector for NHS contracts enabled and continually pushed by previous governments including his own when he was a Health Minister. This included the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) putting a huge financial burden on the NHS rolled out by Tony Blair's government. Neither does he mention the increasing number of services no longer available to patients on the NHS as this privatisation comes at a cost to existing public services. Yet Darzi tries to claim, "Nothing that I have found draws into question the principles of a health service that is taxpayer funded, free at the point of use, and based on need not ability to pay."

Darzi then sets out what the government asked him to identify. The "major themes for the forthcoming 10-year health plan" to "turn the NHS around". In summary these include:

• " Re-engage staff and re-empower patients. Despite all the challenges and low morale, NHS staff are profoundly passionate and motivated to raise the quality of care for patients;
• " Lock in the shift of care closer to home by hardwiring financial flows (from hospital care to "community care");
• " Simplify and innovate care delivery for a neighbourhood NHS that embrace new multidisciplinary models of care that bring together primary, community and mental health services;
• " Drive productivity in hospitals. Acute care providers will need to bring down waiting lists by radically improving their productivity;
• " There must be a major tilt towards technology to unlock productivity;
• " Contribute to the nation's prosperity. Rebuild its capacity to get more people off waiting lists and back into work. At the same time, it should better support British biopharmaceutical companies;
• " Reform to make the structure deliver without top-down reorganisation of NHS England.

The "Three Big Shifts"

Wes Streeting on September 7 (presumably with knowledge of the report) had said that "three big shifts" were needed, summarised as: a move from hospital to community care; from analogue to digital; and from treating sickness to preventing it. Darzi also very helpfully outlines an almost identical agenda to that of Starmer and Streeting for his themes to "turn the NHS around".

What is striking about this review and points for a 10-year plan, is that whilst Darzi identifies the huge shortfall in investments in the NHS over many years, he does not call for this to be addressed. It can also be asked, what is the function of the report when the conclusions have already been decided by the new Labour government prior to it being released, particularly before any discussion has been undertaken with health workers, their unions and the communities they serve. Why not involve also the campaigning organisations which have tirelessly pointed out the need for a change of direction in the NHS?

Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) issued a statement on their website on the publication of the report [2]. The statement asked: "How will Streeting, Starmer and Reeves use Darzi for their policy direction?" It pointed out: "Streeting's three 'big shifts' are: from hospital to community care, from analogue to digital, from treating sickness to preventing it. These are soundbites echoing through the last 25 years and nothing new. What is needed is a restoration of commitment to the NHS wholly publicly run and funded to succeed."

"For Keep Our NHS Public, our three 'big shifts' are:

away from underfunding and to funding the NHS to succeed
away from private outsourcing and to building back publicly provided NHS services
away from fragmentation of services and to a reuniting of the national NHS

And we add a fourth important parallel 'shift':
the establishment of a national service for care, support and independent living"

That these are soundbites echoing through the last 25 years and nothing new is exactly what they are. The Darzi report does not address this need for a change of direction away from a business-orientated capital-centred public and private health system to a publicly provided human-centred health care system, where the decisions are taken by people in their communities, health workers and with a pro-social government that serves and invests in their interests.

Health workers and people in the communities should not become overwhelmed by this present situation but put their energy into discussing, planning and organising to resist cuts to their health services that the Labour government is continuing, or will try to impose. While, at the same time have the aim to establish their own decision-making power so that they can shape the type of health care service that is needed to meet the needs of all and what the NHS should be.

Notes
1. Independent investigation of the NHS in England - Lord Darzi's report on the state of the National Health Service in England, Department of Health and Social Care, September 12 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-investigation-of-the-nhs-in-england
2. Darzi Report: will Government write the wrong prescription? KONP, September 12
https://keepournhspublic.com/darzi-report-will-government-write-wrong-prescription/

In 2007, the then Labour government called in Professor Darzi to do a review of the NHS. Workers Weekly [1] commented then: "Before considering this review, it is worth reflecting on the [Labour] government's 10-year NHS Plan published on July 1, 2000. This plan promised by 2010 investment in the NHS to create 7,000 extra beds in hospitals and intermediate care with over 100 new hospitals by 2010 and 500 new one-stop primary care centres, over 3,000 GP premises modernised and 250 new scanners, clean wards - overseen by "modern matrons" - and better hospital food, modern IT systems in every hospital and GP surgery, and investment in staff with 7,500 more consultants and 2,000 more GPs, 20,000 extra nurses and 6,500 extra therapists, 1,000 more medical school places childcare support for NHS staff with 100 on-site nurseries." The article continued "that one could be forgiven for at least hoping that the government had called in Professor Darzi to ensure that this 10-year NHS plan that was supposed to be the centrepiece of its health policy was being implemented". Darzi did not do that.

Darzi was called in in 2007 to promote investment in community care at the expense of shedding thousands of nurses, doctors and other health workers, either through direct redundancies or through not replacing vacancies as then government imposed its "deficit" financing on the NHS to force the NHS to "balance its books". A plan by the NHS Health Authorities to close around 50 District General Hospitals was also central to this. In fact, this is why Professor Darzi (now Lord Darzi) was picked to do the review in 2007 in the first place. He had already set out his blueprint for London's future healthcare in a report A Framework for Action which continued with the government's agenda of claiming to provide more care in community services as an excuse to close many London hospitals.

Today, the situation is very similar although the NHS has been further wrecked by successive governments since then, not only with the further closure of hospital services and mental health services but also with the huge loss of GP numbers and community health and mental health services. Boris Johnson's government infamously lied to the people by promising to build 40 new hospitals and employ 50,000 new nurses in their previous election manifesto whilst doing the opposite in government by continually deferring these plans. Now the new Labour government has brought in Darzi to make sure that this direction of investment in the NHS for 40 new hospitals and the training of 50,000 nurses is not only dead in the water but reversed. That is the aim. Already, the government has put the new hospital building programme under "review" stopping progress on hospital programmes while a "realistic" and "costed" timeline is worked out. The new Whipps Cross hospital is an example of a programme that was already underway and now is halted.

On September 16, speaking about the Labour government's plans for the NHS and what the aim of the Darzi report is, Dr Bob Gill, a General Practitioner and long-standing NHS campaigner, said in an interview that this is about "replacing hi-quality care in hospital settings with a substitute service run in the community by the private sector with untested technology and without the necessary workforce to back it up. Community services are barely functioning at the moment and they want to transfer more care into non existent services."

In an AGM of South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation Trust on September 24, the Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign (SSTHC) representative commented in a discussion with the CEO on the Darzi plan that "our health services are already in the community of South Tyneside and Sunderland with our hospitals" and that services "in the community" were now almost non existent. He said that SSTHC had objections to shifting investment away from hospitals and into new private firms operating in the community to fill the vacuum when "those services still exist in our communities in our local hospitals". This, he said, was very concerning as it would reduce real existing specialised community services in favour of privately provided hubs.

In the discussions that are now taking place in the 42 NHS Integrated Care Boards in England (ICBs) [2], the "three big shifts" of "a move from hospital to community care; from analogue to digital; and from treating sickness to preventing it", which was announced by Streeting and backed up by the Darzi report, are already being dubbed as the new "left shift" direction for the NHS. But this is to be achieved "within the financial constraints". This is causing huge concern as already the ICB agendas are filled with items trying to recover vital hospital acute, ambulance, mental health, dental and community services which even government and Darzi describe as in "critical condition", but everything must be "within the financial constraints" placed on them by government policy.

If one looks at these discussion of the ICBs, whilst they admit there are serious and worsening inequalities in society as well as worsening child poverty they have no solutions, no power to change this direction of the society and its economy. For example, the ICB North East and North Cumbria, an ICB covering the largest area in the country, responded to Darzi's report by saying that "we also need to seize the opportunity to build on our partnership working with Local Authorities, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprises and Combined Authorities to enable healthcare to contribute to the economic growth of our region". The ICB needs "to play a part in addressing child poverty and the evidence-based impact it has on young people's health outcomes will be critical for us." What these statements do not highlight is the reality and the anti-social direction that the government is implementing in the NHS and society. This Labour government is one that cannot even remove the Conservative "two child cap" on child benefit that has had serious consequences on child poverty, but is expecting ICBs to pick up the bill from existing resources to deal with child poverty and free school meals as increasing cuts also bite into local authority budgets. Further, the talk about shifting from treating sickness to preventing it has raised similar concerns among health workers and their communities. What Darzi is saying is not about healthy food, good housing as a right for people, and good preventative services, but is about shifting funds away from providing vital health care in our NHS to IT companies and big pharma for more drug like "prevention" whilst cutting budgets to health care further. If this is allowed to happen it will deepen further the crisis in the NHS not prevent it.

Notes
1. Professor Darzi's Review of the NHS: "Our NHS, Our Future" - Workers' Weekly, September 25 2007
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wdie-07/d07-053.htm
2. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are the new government appointed Boards for commissioning NHS contracts along with Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) and other sub-committees that place contracts in the public and private sector for NHS services. The ICBs were set up by the previous government in 2022 with the Health and Social Care Act 2022 to replace their previous local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) setup by the Coalition government with the Health and Social Care Act 2012. ICBs have no statutory duty even to make their decisions in public, and the Act tasked them with "overcoming the bureaucracy" of the regulatory systems of "procurement and market bureaucracy". This has meant that whilst some of the Board meetings are held in public how services are commissioned no longer take place even "with an extensive procurement procedure" of the previous CCGs that at least were more visible to the public.

On October 14, the US and Britain and their NATO allies started their annual nuclear war exercise "Steadfast Noon" in Europe following recent statements and threats by the US and Britain aimed at further escalating their Ukraine proxy-war against Russia "without any limits". According to reports more than 60 aircraft are taking part in training flights over western Europe. "Steadfast Noon" runs for two weeks and involves fighter jets capable of carrying US nuclear warheads. They claim it does not involve any live weapons. But these exercises cannot be justified as NATO continues to expand its global wars and nuclear war threat.

The reports say that the exercise "Steadfast Noon" is largely geared towards testing the capabilities and resilience of the alliance-wide nuclear deterrent as carried by the Panavia Tornado, the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, and, as of 2023, the F-35A. Other aircraft types, such as the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, and other roles, such as aerial refuelling tankers and airborne electronic warfare, are also included.

Each of these bases have one or two dozen active vaults (Weapons Storage Security System, WS3) inside as many protective
aircraft shelters. Ramstein airbase in Germany used to be the largest storage site in Europe but only 7 vaults remain
active possibly for training and transfer. All weapons were withdrawn from Lakenheath before 2007 but the United
Kingdom was recently added to the nuclear infrastructure storage modernization program, which means there are now
eight active WS3 sites in Europe. (Federation of American Scientists)

The reports say that the exercise involves 2,000 military personnel from 13 NATO allies operating out of airbases across Belgium and the Netherlands. Mission scenarios will be flown across Danish and UK airspace over land and over the North Sea. It should be noted that, as the BBC reports, in Britain "RAF Lakenheath is currently home to the 48th Fighter Wing, also known as the Liberty Wing, with the latest generation F-35A Lightning II aircraft stationed there. According to the USAF these fighter jets have successfully been flight tested to carry the short-range B61-12 thermonuclear bomb, a tactical weapon designed for the battlefield. Documents detailing a contract awarded to build defensive shelters for RAF Lakenheath's 'upcoming nuclear mission' were published, and then withdrawn, by the US. In addition, millions of dollars have been earmarked to build a facility known as a 'surety dormitory' at the base, which is understood to be storage facilities for nuclear weapons, according to a US Department of Defence budget." [1]

This claim that the exercise "Steadfast Noon" is largely geared towards "testing the capabilities and resilience of the alliance-wide nuclear deterrent" is the biggest lie that can no longer be hidden. This is especially so since the Anglo-US all out support and arming of Israel to carry out genocide in Gaza. These days so called "detente" no longer exists and no one can trust that the Anglo-US warmongering elite and their global interests are not capable of provoking Russia or China into a nuclear war and mass exterminations, just as they are now supporting the daily massacres of thousands of men, women and children in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. According to reports, "Steadfast Noon" means aircraft are to rehearse dropping B61 and B61-12 "tactical" thermonuclear bombs on Europe, each of which is up to 20 times more powerful than the weapon that the US dropped on Hiroshima in World War II, killing as many as 126,000 civilians.

The Steadfast Noon exercise will practice employment of non-strategic nuclear weapons, like this unarmed B61-4 nuclear gravity bomb dropped by an F-15E from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath. Image: Sandia National Laboratories.

Even the claim that these nuclear exercises in Europe "are routine", when NATO now admits that they previously took place in secret, is a lie. The name "Steadfast Noon" was only declassified some six years ago. There is nothing routine about these exercises; they are not aimed at peace but at nuclear war and are not even in accordance with the UN Treaty on nuclear disarmament adopted by 122 countries which legally came into force on January 22, 2021 [2].

Only three of NATO's 30 allies have nuclear weapons - the US, Britain and France - with Britain being the main nuclear ally of the US, since France plays no direct role in NATO's nuclear "deterrence" and is not part of the alliance's secretive Nuclear Planning Group.

Peace-loving people all over the world demand an end to the global warmongering and nuclear war escalation. The security of the peoples of Europe and the world cannot be settled by escalating such conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East. The role played by the US, Britain, NATO and their proxy ruling elites in Israel and Kyiv must be identified as the real threat to peace. The escalation of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East is creating an ever more dangerous situation [3]. In these circumstances, the working class and people must continue to fight for peace and for the necessity of an anti-war government.

No to NATO! Yes to Peace!

Notes
1. Are US nuclear weapons set to return to RAF Lakenheath? BBC News, February 18 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-68217519
2. UN Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by the Conference (by a vote of 122 States in favour, with one vote against and one abstention) at the United Nations on July 7, 2017, and opened for signature by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on September 20, 2017. Following the deposit with the Secretary-General of the 50th instrument of ratification or accession of the Treaty on October 24, 2020, it entered into force on January 22, 2021, in accordance with its article 15.
https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/#:~:text=The%20Treaty%20on%20the%20Prohibition%20of%20Nuclear%20Weapons%20was%20adopted,Nations%20on%2020%20September%202017
3. A report by Politico on President of Ukraine Zelenskyy, when he finally released his "victory plan" on October 16 to the Ukrainian Parliament, writes: "Ukraine proposes to deploy on its soil a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package that will be sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia... The exact weapons were not revealed by Zelenskyy in his speech to parliament, but he said leaders in the US, Germany, France and the UK know Kyiv's asks." Previously in 2022 Zelenskyy had called on NATO to carry out "pre-emptive" nuclear strikes against Russia.

(Sources: Janes, Reuters and NATO)

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla

On September 12, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla presented to the national and foreign press the updated report on the damages caused by the longest and most comprehensive blockade in history. The report, entitled Tumba el Bloqueo (Overthrow the Blockade), covering the period from March 2023 to February 2024, provides objective information and valuable data that further substantiates the denunciation of this grave injustice which is causing the Cuban people their most challenging hardships since the early years of the Revolution, including the Special Period in the 1990s.

Cuba's 2024 Report to UNGA, Tumba el Bloqueo (Overthrow the Blockade)

From March 1, 2023, to February 29, 2024, the US blockade caused damages and material losses to Cuba estimated in the order of US$5.057 billion, which means an increase of $189.8 million as compared to the figure reported in the previous report. This represents an approximate damage of more than $421 million a month, more than $13.8 million a day, and more than $575,683 in damages for each hour of blockade. At current prices, the accumulated damages during more than six decades of this policy amount to $164.141 billion. Based on these numbers, minister Parrilla stated that without the blockade Cuba's GDP could have grown by around eight per cent in 2023.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out that the offensive against tourism; the baseless allegations of sonic attacks against US diplomats to justify Cuba's designation as an unsafe country; the persecution of international medical co-operation agreements, among others, are all part of an improved coercive design intended to prevent the country from receiving the incomes necessary to attend to the increasing needs of the population.

"All the difficulties faced by the Cuban society are not exclusively due to the blockade, but it would be untrue for anyone not to recognise the blockade as the main obstacle to our development. No country in this world, not even those whose economies are much more prosperous and robust than the Cuban economy, would be able to cope with such a ruthless, asymmetric and protracted aggression without a high cost on the living standards of their peoples, their stability and social justice. That cost is being evidenced today in the shortages suffered by Cuban men and women, which include foodstuffs, medicines, fuels, means of transportation; as well as the deterioration of other basic services," he said.

The introduction to the report points out: "During the last few years, particularly in recent months, the ageing of the Cuban population and the high rate of migration particularly among the youngest sectors of the society have become quite noticeable. This situation would be quite different if there were not a blockade, which was further tightened after the implementation of the maximum pressure policy by President Donald Trump, which has been maintained by the administration of President Joseph Biden. The US counterparts have no arguments to deny this truth. The blockade is a crime against humanity, an act of genocide and a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of the human rights of more than 11 million Cubans. It is a cruel punishment policy."

Minister Rodríguez stated that it was unacceptable for the US to ignore and disregard the call of the international community to put an end to this illegal policy, reflected in the 31 resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against Cuba.

Mass Rally in Havana in Defence of the Revolution, 2021

Cuba's Report under United Nations General Assembly resolution 78/7 entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" of July, 2024, continues Cuba's annual effort to document the impact of the US blockade, which has been in place for over six decades, and calls for the international community to support its immediate end.

The document outlines the extensive damages caused by the blockade, particularly in the areas of:

" Economy: The blockade has cost Cuba billions of dollars in lost revenue and trade opportunities. Cuba's access to international markets and financing is severely restricted, exacerbating poverty and limiting development.

" Healthcare and Medicine: The embargo prevents Cuba from acquiring essential medical supplies, equipment, and medicines, especially those produced by or involving US companies. This has had a devastating impact on the health sector, particularly during global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

" Education and Science: Cuba faces significant obstacles in obtaining educational resources and scientific equipment. The blockade also restricts academic collaboration between Cuba and other nations, particularly the US.

" Humanitarian and Human Rights Impact: The report highlights the humanitarian consequences of the blockade on the Cuban people, emphasising that it violates their basic human rights, including the right to development, health, and a decent standard of living.

The inclusion of Cuba in the US State Sponsors of Terrorism List is particularly condemned in the report, as it intensifies the economic pressure and worsens the blockade's effects.

Cuba's government reaffirms its commitment to peaceful engagement and reiterates that the blockade, an outdated and hostile policy, violates international law and the UN Charter. It also emphasises the overwhelming global support for ending the blockade, as reflected by the United Nations General Assembly's near-unanimous votes in favour of previous resolutions.

The report urges the international community to continue supporting Cuba's call for the US to lift the blockade unconditionally, as it is a major obstacle to the country's development and global integration.

The US blockade against Cuba continues to harm the Cuban people, and the re-inclusion of Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List (SSTL) only adds to this injustice. This label is not only unfounded but is being used to intensify the economic pressure on the island, deepening the hardships for millions of ordinary Cubans.

Now more than ever, it is essential for all democratic forces to unite in calling for an end to both the blockade and Cuba's wrongful designation.

J Singh

Mahapanchayat in Uchana, September 14, 2024

In India, the farmers who have been fighting without letup for the recognition of their demands point out that they are not fooled by the Supreme Court of India constituting a committee to look into their grievances. These grievances are well known and have been investigated time and time again. It is yet another attempt by the ruling elite to divert, distract and attack the farmers.

Farmers across India celebrated the 117th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh on September 27, holding rallies, demonstrations, seminars in villages, towns and district headquarters and called on the people of India to intensify their struggles for a life of dignity and justice. They pointed out that Bhagat Singh's words have proven prophetic when he said that our struggle against injustice will continue even if the British leave and they are replaced by brown faces, but continue the system of looting of farmers and workers. The farmers said these brown Sahibs in Delhi want to hand over our lands to Adani, Ambani, Birla, Tata and other corporates. Farmers denounced the former chief minister of Haryana who said that the protesting farmers are not real farmers, they are fake farmers. Farmers also warned the people to be vigilant, that the state of the corporates is trying to drown their struggles in blood by organising violence and attacks based on religion, language and caste.

Ever since the British enacted the land reforms of 1789, countless committees and reforms have been brought into being but their aim has always been to loot and plunder farmers. Farmers know this and they will not be fooled anymore. They know that the aim of the government is to steal their lands and give them to Adani, Ambani and other corporates. They are determined to carry on their struggles. Mahapanchayats (mass meetings), rallies at Shambhu, Khanauri, Sisauli, Sangrur and hundreds of other towns and district headquarters are taking place to strengthen the farmers' unity and organisations.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting in Madhya Pradesh for a minimum support price (MSP) for soyabean. The administration tried to stop them from gathering in the grain markets. Farmers pointed out that the grain markets are their places and no one can stop them from gathering there. Farmers pointed out that all the policies of the central government are to give our lands to corporates and lock their roti in their Tijories (safes) to starve people in order to maximise their profits no matter which party is in power in Delhi. They have decided that no leader of any political party is welcome on their stage.

In Malkangiri, Odisha, thousands of tribal people have been demonstrating since September 13 from more than 250 gram sabhas to protect their Jal, Jungle and Jameen (water, forest and land). They are demanding that under the Forest Rights Act, title to their lands be given to them. Since 2006 none of the governments have implemented the law.

Rail Roko, October 13, 2024

In Bihar, protests are ongoing against the government's land survey. People are protesting against the officials who are engaged in corrupt practices and arbitrarily making entries into the official record to drive them off their lands.

A massive protest took place in Patiala on September 22 demanding the release of Malvinder Singh Mali, a human rights activist and political commentator. Farmers, workers, students gathered and denounced the criminalisation of dissent by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab. The ruling elite use all political parties to carry out attacks on the rights of people so as to pursue its plunder and oppression. Friends of Bharatiya Kisan Union in the US in a statement said:

"The arrest of Mali represents yet another stark instance of the AAP government under Bhagwant Singh Mann trampling on human rights and criminalising dissent to silence its critics. The circumstances of his arrest - swift police action mere hours after the FIR was lodged, and the denial of an opportunity for Mali to present his side - constitute a grave injustice and an egregious violation of the Indian Constitution. Mali has long been an outspoken critic of the Punjab government's policies, and this arrest appears to be a direct attempt to stifle his voice."

Earlier in September, police in Haryana tried to stop farmers from holding a Mahapanchayat in Uchana by threatening the tent and sound system vendor and sealing the border with Punjab. But the farmers came in their hundreds of thousands breaking all the blocks and barricades set up by the government. To save India, they declared, farmers must save their lands that the ruling elite want to give to the corporates. A guaranteed MSP is a necessity to save India.

Farmers in Punjab and Haryana organised a Rail Roko - stoppage of railways - on October 13 to highlight their demands. The Rail Roko was completely successful. The Punjab government is trying to split the unity of farmers by trying to "negotiate" with one group of farmers while demonising others. Although the farmers have brought their rice to the markets, the government is not buying it. It wants to force them to sell to Adani at a cheaper price. Farmers pointed out that they have to take control of storage, distribution and marketing themselves and create mechanisms to do this, as the government and state are completely in the pocket of the corporates. They are devastating Punjab.

Uttarakhand Kisan Union held a Mahapanchayatin Haridwar for the payment of arrears in the amount of Rs 110 crore for the last two years by the sugar mills. They are planning to have a protest in Dehradun and, if their demands are not met, they will march to Delhi. For years, the sugar mills have made it a regular practice to buy sugar cane and not pay for it and the government is in cahoots with the sugar mill owners no matter which party is in power. The farmers said that these parties do not have Vichardhara (ideology) but Kursidhara (thirst to stay in power).

Farmers are owed more than Rs 220 crore by the sugar mill in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh.

This is equivalent to more than 20 million pounds sterling. They have been protesting to get their money for more than a month and have announced mass meetings on October 24 in Bijnor, October 26 in Bulandshehar and October 27 in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Farmers sitting on the Shambhu and Khanauri border for the last 240 days have declared that their struggle will continue for their basic demands. They said that it makes no difference which party is in power, it is their struggle that has forced BJP and other parties to talk about MSP and other demands.

The Punjab government formed by the AAP has constituted a Punjab Development Commission headed by Seema Bansal of the Boston Consulting Group. It is mandated to frame all-round policies for Punjab. Highly paid "experts" are to be paid handsomely to develop mechanisms to plunder and loot farmers and toilers. Nothing good is going to come out of the further implementation of the vicious and destructive neo-liberal offensive launched by the Manmohan Singh government (2004-2014) which started the current hand-over of the land and other resources of Punjab to the corporates. People from different sectors are calling for disbanding the commission.

Andheri Raat Ka Ant Hai Tay
Kitane Zulam Kamay

(The darkest night is bound to end
No matter how dark or oppressive it is)