[Thread on Solidarity] In 1992, after the USSR folded, the Cuban Revolution was forced into its Special Period. We - in @cpimspeak - collected 10,000 tonnes of wheat & rice across India for Cuba as an act of material solidarity. #StandWithCuba#EstamosConCuba#CubaNoEstaSola
The wheat and rice were taken to Haldia (West Bengal) and loaded onto a ship - Caribbean Princess. The ship was escorted to Cuba by our party leaders Harkrishen Singh Surjeet and MA Baby. Castro met them in Havana and took the wheat and rice for the country.
For the next period, Castro said, let all the bread baked in Cuba be known as the Bread of India, since it would be using Indian grain, grain of solidarity, grain of love for the example of the Cuban Revolution.
Castro asked how Cuba could repay the kindness. Surjeet said that India looked up to Cuba; that was enough. That is indeed enough. The great Cuban Revolution's survival and development is all that we want; and what we really want is to emulate the Cuban Revolution in our lands.
Comrade Baby said that perhaps Cuba could help India develop in sports. Castro answered: "In sports, Cuba is known for excellence in boxing. It is tricky to conduct Cuba-India matches. Will Indians feel bad if our sportsmen defeat them during the match?"
All I can think about is the book I want to write on the great Cuban hero, Teofilo Stevenson, boxer of boxers, socialist of socialists.
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[Thread on the question of Hamas] Two things that require some consideration. 1. The demand by the warmongers that people who call for the ceasefire must condemn Hamas. 2. The strange framework adopted by the media that this is an Israel-Hamas war.
[Pictures in this thread are by Majd Arandas (1994-2023), a brave Palestinian photographer who captured everyday life in Gaza, where he was born in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Such gentleness destroyed by this ugly Israeli war]
Hamas was formed in 1987. The Naqba (Catastrophe) of the Palestinians took place in 1948. For 39 years, the Palestinians struggled for an end to the Permanent Naqba, for their land & for justice. Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) is only one flank of the Palestinian resistance.
[thread] Dear @IntlCrimCourt - waiting for you to draft arrest warrants against @netanyahu. So quick to do a warrant against Putin for removing 6000 children from the war zone to Russia, but now won't file a warrant against a man responsible for killing 6000 Palestinian children.
The Rome Statute (2002) upon which you are based is quite clear about the crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Any brief glance at the Statute and the evidence suggests you should have filed a warrant already. Your credibility hangs on a thread.
Your lead prosecutor Karim Khan KC was at Rafah and wrote a note on what he had seen. He seemed aghast at the situation in the video he posted from Rafah. And yet, since he left Egypt, there has been no public movement from the @IntlCrimCourt.
[thread] Israel claims, after killing around 10,000 Palestinians, that it has killed 'dozens' of Hamas militants (). What is the formula for civilians to militants as far as the @IDF and @netanyahu are concerned?cnn.com/middleeast/liv…
By saying that they have killed dozens of Hamas militants - their purported target - and having at the same time killed thousands of Palestinians, they have admitted to the world that their war has resulted in far more civilian deaths than combatant deaths. This is on the record.
Meanwhile, @IDF is bulldozing homes of civilians not only in northern Gaza, but also in Jenin. This doesn't look like a military operation to remove Hamas, but a massive civilisational campaign of ethnic cleansing from what @netanyahu & his political class call Greater Israel.
An occupying power (Israel) does not have the right to defend itself against those whom it is occupying (Palestinians).
International law requires the occupier to follow the Geneva Conventions.
Western governments don’t seem to grasp this - so, @POTUS, @RishiSunak, @JustinTrudeau, @Bundeskanzler, @EmmanuelMacron, stop saying that Israel has a ‘right’ to defend itself. Israel is the occupying power here.
@POTUS @RishiSunak @JustinTrudeau @Bundeskanzler @EmmanuelMacron You Western leaders want to say whatever you want that suits your interests, but we are no longer going to let you get away with butchering international law.
[Thread] The absurd @WSJ publishes a story with a fantasy Cold War headline: wsj.com/articles/cuba-…. There are no sources in this rather ramshackle piece of fiction.
Those who might not know this, should learn about Operations Northwoods by the US State that suggested the killing of US citizens by the US as a 'false flag' to initiate hostilities against Cuba. Don't my word for it. Read the government report: nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/…
Such 'false flag' events include the 'Havana Syndrome' rumours that the US floated, which provoked increased sanctions against Cuba and then @CIA had to later deny (here's the @NPR story on the denials - npr.org/2022/01/20/107…). The excessive sanctions remain.