All through the night, from 10pm on July 6th to 1pm on July 7th, members of the Walking for Cuba campaign will undertake a continuous 60km walk along the Royal Canal from Co. Meath into Dublin city centre. Following in the footsteps of 1,490 people famine victims who walked from Strokestown Park to ships in Dublin in 1847, at the height of the Irish Famine. They will symbolically walk 1km for each year of the US blockade against Cuba. This walk is a fundraiser to raise money for the purchase of syringes for the Cuban Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Cuba is in the unique position that, despite suffering under the 60-year long US blockade, it has successfully manufactured a range of Covid-19 vaccines and announced its intention to supply 100 million vaccine doses across the Global South, yet it is prevented from purchasing the syringes it needs to inoculate its own population. This is the result of the 60-year US policy of blockade.
Cuba is being prevented from purchasing syringes by the US blockade. The US exerts huge power over the world’s financial system through which it controls all transactions conducted by Applepay, PayPal, GoFundMe, Visa and most US and foreign banks, including all transactions through SWIFT and Stripe.
Along with financial obstacles, the US uses its economic and political leverage to routinely prevent Cuba accessing critical medical equipment, pharmaceuticals or PPE supplies from its foreign suppliers. Transport companies, whether owned by US or other individuals, (i.e. those with a US subsidiary, or those based in another jurisdiction but that do business with US companies) face sanctions, including massively disproportionate fines.
Imagine a country developing and producing its own Covid-19 vaccines, enough to cover its entire population, but being unable to inoculate everyone because of a syringe shortage. This absurd situation is real, and one that Cuba will soon face. Cuba has already vaccinated about 2 million of its 11 million people with successfully manufacturing a range of Covid-19 vaccines, and hopes to have 70 percent of the population vaccinated by August. Yet, because of the 60-year US embargo, which punishes civilians during a pandemic, the country is facing a shortage of millions of syringes.
Danny Glover, American author and actor
It makes little sense that a country so advanced in biotech and pharmaceuticals should have trouble sourcing syringes.
The irony is that Cuba’s achievements in health are a model and a demonstrable benefit for the entire world—one that the United States should be supporting. This is a country that is developing its economy through health and education—a project that began 60 years ago with rural literacy and health campaigns. Cuba’s public health system has allowed it to outperform much of the world in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and, most recently, per capita pandemic statistics.
In spite of this, Cuban medics have travelled to the farthest corners of the Earth to assist countries struggling to fight against Covid-19. Cuban doctors, nurses, and other health professionals were deployed to over 40 countries to fight the pandemic on the front lines, helping the world’s poor and underserved populations to weather the worst of the crisis. For Cuba, health is not just a right for its own people; it’s a right to be upheld and shared with all peoples.In Europe, Cuban medics brought welcome support to the overwhelmed Italian and Andorra health systems. Now, we need the people of Europe to support Cuba by donating to this fundraising drive to purchase syringes from European, Russian and Chinese suppliers to ship to Cuba.
The walkers will be carrying a petition for distribution to the members of Dail Eireann calling on the Minister of Finance to protect Irish businesses and citizens from having all of their banking transations systematically surveilled by the US State Department. Read the 2021 Dail Petition
The UN General Assembly last week called for an end to blockade for the 29th consecutive year, in a virtually unanimous vote in favour of Cuba 184 to 2 (the US and Israel)
Anyone can support this campaign by donating at this link https://bit.ly/CSGI-Donate 100% of all donations will fund blockade-busting medical purchases for the Cuban health system.
Members of the public are invited to walk along with us on a section of the 60km journey or to help by sharing this post and spreading the word about #WalkingforCuba.
