HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 12 (acn) Brigadier General Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, president of Cuba-Russia Friendship Association, praised the constructive path of bilateral ties between the two countries in the economic, political and cultural sphere.

Tamayo Méndez, first Latin American who traveled to the cosmos in a Cuban-Soviet joint flight, said that those ties will strengthen the role of both countries in international debate spaces.

The Brigadier-General told the institution he presides will mark its 50th anniversary soon, and recalled the strong support offered to the Caribbean nation by the former Soviet Union, which contributed to raising the technical and professional level of Cubans.

He also commented that despite the economic and financial crisis affecting the world, the economic relations with Cuba will grow thanks to the political will of both countries.

Tamayo Mendez also stressed the realization of many objectives in these years of friendship, now strengthened by several associations and by the actions of his entity.

Russia stands out as an example of solidarity work with our country, he noted, example of this is the position of its government against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba.

Another sign of support is its position in favor of the immediate release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero, Cuban antiterrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in U.S. jails, he stated.

Cuba-Russia Friendship Association was founded in 1964 by two great men of history, Ernesto Guevara and the world’s first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.

This organization forever sealed a friendship that endures and gets strengthened today despite the vicissitudes of history.

Statement of the Central Committee CP of Greece (KKE), on the results of the elections of May 18 and May 25, 2014.

May 27, 2014

1. The CC salutes the thousands of party members, friends of the party and KNE, people who cooperate with the KKE, the voters who fought in this battle, joined forces with the party and contributed to the strengthening of the KKE. The party fought in a unified way throughout the country, with the list of the KKE in the EU elections on 25th May, with the lists of the “People’s Rally” in the municipal and regional elections both in the first round on 18th May as well in the second round on 25th May.

In the EU parliamentary elections the KKE increased its percentage (6,1%) and votes (347.817) in relation to its percentage (4,5%) and votes (227.227) in June 2012, electing two MEPs. In addition, it won the elections in the municipalities of Patras, Haidari, Petroupolis and Ikaria. It had an increase in the country’s 13 regions, receiving 8.8% and 498,573 votes. It increased its votes in 214 municipalities. In 50 municipalities its percentage exceeded 10%. The percentage of the KKE in the EU parliamentary elections and in the regional- municipal elections reflects a trend for the rallying of forces around the KKE and the influence of its positions on new voters.

It also demonstrates, to a certain extent, the acceptance of the fundamental position of the KKE against the EU, the monopolies and the governments that support the “EU one way-street”. On this basis it is necessary for the party, from the CC to each Party Base Organisation, to tighten its relations with all the working people who took this step, came to the side of the KKE and supported it in the elections. The party organizations will discuss with the friends and the people who cooperated with the party about the conclusions and the significant experience drawn from the battle as well as about the goals and ways to organize the struggle and rally the people for a pro-people way out of the crisis.

2. The election result demonstrates the people’s anger towards ND and PASOK which undertook the burden of implementing the anti-people governmental policies and the “EU one way- street”. The election result as a whole does not demonstrate any reversal of the anti-people balance of forces; it does not constitute any “new political scene” in favour of the people.

Although a significant section of the voters of SYRIZA made this choice with the expectation of a left orientation, the first position of SYRIZA does not express any strengthening of the left, radical, antimonopoly, anti-imperialist political line. The election result, where SYRIZA took the first place, more ro less maintaining its percentage from June 2012, was formed under the pressure for an immediate change in government that would allegedly halt the current anti-people political line.

Nevertheless the political line of SYRIZA for the management of the system does not constitute any true opposition to the government’s anti-people policies. SYRIZA is neither willing nor capable of providing a pro-people solution. It is not on the people’s side. The results –above all in the EU parliamentary elections- indicate the consolidation of the tendency to substitute the visibly weakened PASOK by SYRIZA, as part of the reshuffling of the political scene that started in June 2012.

At the same time, the course of other social democratic formations appears to be volatile e.g. the “OLIVE TREE” which was the main electoral formation of PASOK. The “OLIVE TREE” rallied some forces but received a smaller percentage than in June 2012. Furthermore, the percentage of the Democratic Left was reduced in favour of the new formation “THE RIVER” that appeared with unclear and blurred slogans. Although the tendency of the KKE to rally forces and receive new votes is positive, the election results as a whole do not express any significant tendency towards the emancipation of the workers’ and people’s forces from the parties of the “EU one way- street”, the interests of capital and the monopolies.

The most extreme expression of this discrepancy is the high percentage of Golden Dawn. Generally there is a retreat as regards the people’s consciousness, a strengthening of conservatism. The ruling class and the system still possess significant reserves that allow it to appear with different mantles. This assessment is based on the votes and programmes both of SYRIZA, as well as of the “OLIVE TREE” and the “RIVER”. As a whole, the recomposition of the political system is underway, the creation of new barriers to radicalization, something that we must specifically monitor in the next period.

3. The line of counterattack and rupture against the capitalist path of development, the EU and the policies that support this path via assimilation and passivity must be further strengthened within the working class, the youth and the movement. Irrespective of the political developments and the correlation of forces among the parties that support the EU and the bourgeois management, the day after the elections the people will have to face the EU permanent memoranda and the policies that serve the competitiveness and the recovery of capital. These policies lead to the even greater bankruptcy of the people and cannot solve the acute popular problems such as the problem of unemployment.

This path is served both by government and SYRIZA as well as by the other parties. It is an anti-people and barbaric path of development which, despite their efforts, cannot be prettified. Thus, the governmental parties are making false promises that investments and capitalist recovery will allegedly relieve the people, while SYRIZA fosters the illusion that it will change the EU.

4. The Nazi Golden Dawn maintains a high percentage of the vote. In the recent period, alongside the other factors that reinforced Golden Dawn and which the KKE has repeatedly highlighted, we must also add the stance of the other political forces towards the voters of Golden Dawn, which treat them as electoral clientele. Isolating Golden Dawn so that it loses votes from the popular strata is something completely different from the opportunistic and dangerous tactic of the other parties that foster the rationale of its toleration and exculpation in order to fish for votes.

The KKE is committed to undertaking more initiatives in the movement, in the workplaces, in the popular neighbourhoods, amongst the youth, in order to expose the fact that Golden Dawn is supported by mechanisms of the system, by sections of capital, by the political line of the EU.

5. The overall electoral results in the rest of the EU countries are negative for the peoples. They highlight the need for the regroupment of the communist movement and the strengthening of the CPs and the mass popular movements in a direction of rupture and overthrow of the power of capital and the monopolies.

The tangible popular opposition to the EU, to its political line and institutions, which was also expressed by the mass abstention from the EU parliamentary elections in many member-states as a result of the many years of experience of the peoples regarding the EU, instead of acquiring an anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist orientation is trapped in conservative, reactionary parties, in nationalist and racist forces, fascist organizations, of so-called “euro-skepticism”, which serve the aims of various sections of capital.

These sections of capital seek the reformation of the Eurozone and EU, even via the withdrawal of countries from it, in order to serve their particular interests, to strengthen their competitiveness. These parties do not dispute the anti-people political line, the intensification of capitalist exploitation, the accession to some form of imperialist alliance. Consequently, they are not a solution for the peoples of Europe.

The parties that are rallied in the “European Left Party”, to which SYRIZA belongs, as well as communist parties that have abandoned the struggle against the EU and for the overthrow of the power of capital, also bear responsibilities for this situation. These parties, with the political line of prettifying the EU, their compromised stance in the movement, through their participation in anti-people governments in previous years, damaged the labour-people’s movement in their countries, led it to defeat, leaving the workers in these countries exposed to the populism of reactionary and fascist parties.

6. The atmosphere of the confrontation is being cultivated and focused, in the period immediately after the elections, on attempts to trap the people in the question regarding “which government will have the greatest negotiating capability” inside the walls of the EU and the capitalist development path. The people must not be trapped into waiting and choosing the allegedly lesser evil, which will consolidate today’s anti-people correlation of forces.

The KKE will strengthen its efforts and initiatives regarding the sharpening problems of the people, as it also did in the previous period with its proposals concerning the relief of the unemployed, the popular households etc. It will strengthen the efforts for the regroupment of the labour-people’s movement, the construction of the People’s Alliance, in order to strengthen the anti-capitalist and anti-monopoly direction of the struggle and the rallying of forces.

It will struggle, utilizing its elected MEPS, mayors, municipal and regional councilors, in order to expose the anti-people plans that are being concocted both in the EU parliament as well as in the regional and municipal councils. It will fight against all the anti-people measures of the EU, the governments and the local and regional bodies that support it.

It will make every effort so that solidarity and the common struggle of the peoples against the wars unleashed by the EU, NATO and the USA at their expense gain ground, especially today when dangerous developments are being witnessed in the entire region, from Thrace and Cyprus to Syria and Ukraine. It will make every effort so that the struggle for socialism is strengthened, which will liberate the workers and peoples from exploitation and oppression.

The KKE is the only party that provides the perspective of the country and people being freed from the shackles of the predatory alliance and all the debt, by overthrowing the owners of the accumulated wealth. A people sovereign and capable of appointing their own government, of workers’-people’s power, means a people capable of taking the wealth it creates into its hands, transforming it into the people’s property for its own prosperity. Then central planning of the economy in favour of the people will become a reality and the relations with peoples and countries will develop with their mutual interests as the criterion

May 26, 2014

The CC of the KKE

Those who want to privatize Medicare, Social Security and the Post Office
are at it again. The waitlists for veterans have spawned an attack on the
whole Veterans Administration health system. Those who would turn our
public systems over to profit-making corporations falsely use problems at
the VA to disparage single payer health care.

“If VA care were not generally very good, the VA would not continue to
rank extraordinarily high in independent surveys of patient satisfaction,”
says Phillip Longman, author of a book on the VA, “Best Care Anywhere.”

So we need to fix the problem and bring quick care to the patients–not
destroy the VA. As usual, the best ones to ask are those who do the
work. Here’s what J. David Cox Sr., a former VA nurse and current
National AFGE President, has to say.

Want to End Secret Wait Lists? Staff the VA

J. David Cox Sr.
National President, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-david-cox-sr/want-to-end-secret-wait-va_b_5372387.html

The public’s outrage over excessive wait times and rigged recordkeeping at
Veterans Affairs hospitals is more than justified. As a former VA nurse, I
understand all too well that depriving veterans of timely access to care
is a disservice to them and their sacrifice to this nation.

But cleaning house in the VA’s executive ranks will only treat the
symptom. The disease plaguing the VA healthcare system is chronic
understaffing of physicians and other frontline providers.

Until we fill thousands of vacant positions, open closed hospital beds and
provide more dollars for building and maintaining medical facilities, we
will never heal what ails the VA.

Physicians are dealing with excessive caseloads and insufficient support
staff. Since 2009, 2 million veterans entered the VA health care system
for a net increase of 1.4 million new patients. Each physician should be
responsible for no more than 1,200 patients at a given time, according to
the VA’s own guidelines, yet many VA doctors are treating upwards of 2,000
patients each.

Simply put, there isn’t enough time in the day for the available doctors
to treat every veteran who is seeking care in a timely fashion.

Compounding matters is a performance system that sets unrealistic goals
and incentivizes managers to increase the number of patients served,
instead of improving the quality of care. Rather than face the
understaffing issue head-on and risk poor ratings, many managers have
taken the easy way out and have cooked the books to mask the wait times.

But blaming those managers for a performance system that was doomed from
the start won’t help our veterans get the care they seek any faster.

Truth be told, there is nothing wrong with the VA that can’t be healed by
what is right with the VA: the frontline providers who care for our
veterans every day.

No one is complaining about the quality of care our veterans receive.
That’s because the federal employees who look after our nation’s heroes
work hard each and every day to provide them with world-class service.

Unfortunately, those same employees have lived in fear of speaking out
about the problems they witness due to an established history of
retaliation, including loss of duties and unfounded disciplinary actions.
Our members have paid a heavy price for voicing concerns, submitting
letters to agency leaders, raising issues in labor management meetings,
and testifying before Congress on wait time issues and veterans’ access to
care. When they have sounded the alarm, our members have faced retaliation
and intimidation time and time again.

Employees shouldn’t feel afraid to speak up when they see managers more
concerned with securing bonuses than providing patients with timely access
to care for critical medical conditions. In fact, they should be
encouraged to bring up these issues so they can be rectified before more
veterans go without the treatment they so desperately need.

The waitlist and understaffing issues are one and the same. Until Congress
gives the VA the resources to hire enough frontline clinicians to meet
demand, our veterans will continue to face long waits. And to be clear,
sending veterans to expensive health care providers outside the VA system
on a massive scale will not fix the underlying resource deficiencies
plaguing our veterans medical centers.

According to the Independent Budget for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, developed each year by leading veterans groups, the Veterans
Health Administration is facing a $2 billion funding shortfall for the
upcoming fiscal year and another $500 million shortfall for fiscal 2016.

As the nation prepares to honor our fallen soldiers this Memorial Day,
there is no better time to strengthen our support for the health care
system that treats those veterans who made it home.

It’s time for the VA to get back to basics and focus on improving access
to care for our nation’s veterans.

The agency must cut excess management layers and use those resources to
boost frontline staffing of doctors, nurses and others directly involved
in patient care. The growth of middle management positions within the
agency has ballooned to unprecedented levels, from fewer than 300 in 1995
to more than 1,700 by a recent count, costing taxpayers $203 million
annually.

The VA long has been held up as a model healthcare delivery system that
all other hospitals should emulate. The care our veterans receive is
second to none, but that only counts when our veterans actually are
treated.
—
J. David Cox Sr. is national president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, which represents more than 670,000 federal and D.C.
government employees nationwide
Follow J. David Cox Sr. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JDavidCoxSr
https://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=StaffTheVA

Distributed by:

All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551

Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org
6/9/2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/katrina-vanden-heuvel/2011/02/24/ABMj4XN_page.html

By Katrina vanden Heuvel, Tuesday, June 10, 8:00 AM

The sad irony of U.S.-Cuban relations is that Cuba, under the leadership of 83-year-old Raúl Castro, is changing rapidly, and the United States, despite President Obama’s promises of a “new beginning,” remains largely frozen in a self-destructive Cold War policy.

The fifty-plus year-old embargo of Cuba continues. The administration still lists Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” The United States continues to sponsor covert activities — this time a U.S. Agency for International Development attempt to generate “smart mobs” through a secret text-messaging program — to help destabilize the regime. Ten presidents after the embargo began, U.S. policy remains dedicated to folly.

Meanwhile the world, the hemisphere and Cuba have changed. If anything, the embargo isolates the United States, not Cuba.

Washington’s relationship with the region is deteriorating, corroded by its policy toward Cuba. With few exceptions, the left-leaning governments that govern across Latin America have normal relations with Cuba and scorn the U.S. attempt to isolate the little island. At the last Summit of the Americas in 2012, the presidents of Brazil and of Colombia, one of the few remaining U.S. allies, joined several other countries in announcing they would skip the next summit in 2015 if Cuba is not invited. And well they should, as the summits become increasingly irrelevant, with regional trading and political ties developing with the United States, not Cuba, on the sidelines.

My recent trip to Cuba, as part of the nation’s first educational exchange trip to that country, reaffirmed what Josefina Vidal, head of the North American Division of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, told our delegation in a wide ranging 90-minute conversation: “The U.S. is facing the risk of becoming irrelevant in the future of Cuba.”

The conservative Republican head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donahue, while visiting Cuba last month, reiterated the chamber’s call to lifting the embargo in his speech at the University of Havana. Donahue understands that the major victims of the U.S. blockade are U.S. businesses.

Cuba has just passed a new law facilitating foreign investment. A new rush is on. A Brazilian firm captured the major project of modernizing the port at Mariel. A Chinese company is building 34 wind turbines. And another Chinese company sells the new cars that are starting to be seen on the streets. A British developer has just initialed a deal to build a “luxury golf resort.” The European Union has opened a formal dialogue with Cuba on trade, investment and human rights.

The pace of change in Cuba is accelerating — and is visible on the ground. Paladares (private restaurants), tapas bars and even night clubs are sprouting up in private homes. When Obama rightly eased restrictions on the travel and remittances of Cuban Americans, visitors bearing gifts flooded the island.

Remarkable changes in sex education and official attitudes are apparent, with the state going from imprisoning homosexuals to launching campaigns against sexual violence, considering legalizing same-sex marriage, subsidizing sex-change operations and banning discrimination based on sexuality at the workplace. Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro, the charismatic head of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, has become a renowned figure both in Cuba and across the world for her work in this area. Despite her government’s restrictions on political speech, Castro is an outspoken advocate for more open sexual discourse. When we met with her at the center, she expressed frustration at continuing official resistance to legalizing gay marriage and spoke of herself as a fighter — fighting for a new way of thinking about sexuality and supported by a growing Cuban grassroots network of activists.

Of course, Cuba faces severe challenges. The regime still keeps a heavy hand on the press and social media and, as I learned in conversations with a leading Cuban journalist, the recent Twitter scandal has made reform-minded Cuban journalists’ fight to modernize the country’s social-media infrastructure more difficult.

Human rights are still constricted. The regime knows it has to change but hopes to maintain core advances (particularly in health care and education) that are the signatures of the revolution.

With foreign investment, expanding private enterprises and increasing tourism comes greater inequality and increasing tension. Yet, as veteran journalist Marc Frank explains in his fascinating new book, “Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana,” there is a “grey zone” — a significant segment of Cubans whom Castro is trying to win over with his efforts to modernize the economy.

Amidst all of these changes, the United States is fighting yesterday’s war. At present, Cubans are freer to travel to the United States than Americans are to go to Cuba. What fears or fantasies support that idiocy?

U.S. policy is frozen in large part because bureaucratic inertia is reinforced by the hold anti-Castro zealots have on our policy — most notably Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who represents Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). But these zealots are growing ever more isolated. Recently, nearly four dozen former government officials, diplomats, retired military officers, wealthy Cuban emigres and business leaders warned in an open letter to the president that the United States is “increasingly isolated internationally in its Cuba policy,” and called on the administration to act on its own to ease travel for all Americans and allow increased trade and financial exchanges. Even Hillary Clinton — who has a hawkish track record on Cuba — claims in her new book that she urged Obama to ease or lift the embargo, although she seems content with the minor reforms that were made

Obama has said he needn’t wait for the Congress, he has a “phone and pen” to take executive actions. He could act now to negotiate with the Cubans the long-overdue trade of the Cuban Five (now three) jailed for espionage in the United States for USAID contractor Alan Gross, jailed in Cuba nearly five years ago for distributing communications equipment to Jewish groups. Obama could open up exchanges and travel for all Americans, while loosening financial restrictions.

In discussions with our delegation, former Cuban foreign minister Ricardo Alarcon noted that the fact the White House is prepared to negotiate with the Taliban but not its neighbor raises questions about how “rational” U.S. policy is. Sustaining a policy that has failed for over 50 years and 10 presidents, an embargo that has isolated the United States in its own hemisphere, a blockade that damages U.S. businesses and restrictions that constrict the rights of Americans — no, that doesn’t sound rational.

The experts suggest there is a window of time for the president to act — after the midterm elections and before the middle of 2015. The promised “new beginning” would be better late than never.

May 10, 2014 | 9:51 pm

Hi,

I created a petition to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama which says:

“We petition the US government to repeal the Helms-Burton act and lift the embargo against Cuba. The Helms-Burton act makes it more difficult to lift the embargo and it deepens the restrictions against trade with Cuba. It hurts people in the US and in Cuba as well as people in countries around the world. It is a stain on the reputation of the USA.”

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/repeal-the-helms-burton?source=c.em.mt&r_by=8638452

Thanks!

James Thompson

NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: Paul Teitelbaum
520-762-6629
pault@iactucson.org
(English only) Alicia Jrapko
Phone: 510-219-0092
info@thecuban5.org
(Spanish and English)

“5 Days for the Cuban 5” To End June 10

Organizers cite progress in promoting case of Cuban 5/
normalizing U.S.-Cuba Relations
WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 8, 2014 – A five day series of events focused on changing the U.S. policy towards Cuba and freeing The Cuban 5 comes to a close this Tuesday, June 10th, with an evening of speakers and cultural activities. The evening will feature speakers from Cuba’s religious community, ambassadors from several Latin American countries, and participants in the 5 Days for the Cuban 5 events.

This past Sunday, people gathered at Sheridan Circle to remember the 1976 car-bombing that killed Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffit. Letelier’s son Francisco recounted how the murder of his father and Moffit were carried out by Miami-based Cuban exile groups, who went on to bomb a Cubana civilian airliner two weeks later, killing all 73 passengers on board.

These Cuban-exile groups were discussed as part of a two-day Conference on U.S.-Cuba Relations which also highlighted the case of the Cuban 5. The Cuban 5 are five Cubans arrested in the U.S. in 1998 for thwarting attacks against Cuba which were planned and orchestrated by these exile groups. The five Cubans received long prison sentences in the trial following their arrest. Two of the Cuban 5 have completed their entire sentences and returned to Cuba, while three remain in U.S. prisons, one serving a double-life sentence plus 15 years.

Last Saturday, over 500 people gathered in front of the White House to ask President Obama to free the remaining Cuban 5 and to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. The protesters then continued through the streets of Washington to the Justice Department where the same demands were raised.

Tuesday evening’s event takes place at Bolivarian Hall, 2443 Massachusetts Ave NW in Washington and is sponsored by the International Committee for the Freedom for the Cuban 5.

For additional information on the 5 Days for the Cuban 5, please visit http://www.5daysforthecuban5.com

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 9 (acn) Solidarity with Cuba movement in Catalonia, Spain, called in front of the U.S. consulate in Barcelona for a change of policy towards the island and the release of three Cubans imprisoned in that country.

Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino next September will mark 16 years of their arrest in Miami, where they were tracking terrorist plans against their country.

The three are part of the group internationally known as The Five alongside Fernando González and René González, who are already in Cuba after having served sentences they received in a biased trial.

Catalan solidarity movement with Cuba denounced that both in the United States and Europe the case is silenced and that there have been many requests made by human rights organizations submitted to the U.S. presidency.

A report from the Cubainformación digital publication, quoted by Prensa Latina news agency, said that during the ceremony this weekend in front of the U.S. consulate in Barcelona participants displayed banners and shouted slogans, demanding President Barack Obama to release the three Cubans.

The event was attended by members of organizations integrated in the platform against the blockade Defensem Cuba and other groups, who said they will continue taking actions and making mobilizations until the liberation of the entire group.

Meanwhile, the Madrid Committee to free the Cuban Five called for next Thursday at 20:00 local time a rally in the Puerta del Sol to demand the immediate release of the three Cubans who remain in U.S. prisons.

Cubainformación recalled that last year 13 members of the Catalan Parliament signed a letter to President Barack Obama to demand the releaseof the Cubans.