Dockworkers at the port of Havana had struck and blockaded the port, refusing to load a shipment of rice bound for Haiti, pointing to a chronic national shortage.
Rice has been unavailable in the "island socialist paradise" for a month now. It can't even be found in the elitist convertible stores (which accept pesos convertibles from the small elite and tourists, while workers' wages and rations are paid in the moneda nacional). The shortage has been a cause of great public outcry, as this episode demonstrates.
Upon hearing of the proposed shipment to Haiti, dockworkers in the capital refused to load the boat and blockaded the port. The army was sent in to load it instead, but the workers refused them access, claiming that they would sooner die then let their children go hungry. Faced with a rapidly escalating situation, the military reported to the President Raúl Castro, who decided against invoking a shore of international condemnation for massacring hungry workers in the capital. Instead, the shipment was cancelled and the grain was distributed throughout the nation's shops.
The courage of the Havana dockworkers is to be applauded, suggesting, as it does, the green shoots of a reignition of popular militancy on the island against over half a century of the castrista dynasty and its accompanying state capitalist economy. We'll keep you updated as to developments on the island.
EDIT 24/06/10: edited to clarify some facts after talking to better sources - CdB
Comments
Here is another article about
Here is another article about rice shortages in Cuba.
A Cuban Skirmish for Rice
Edited after getting better
Edited after getting better sources. The original article appears to have come from the far-right miameros.
Can a admin please accept my
Can a admin please accept my editing, seeing as how it fundamentally changes the slant of the story?
right, that is very different
right, that is very different - so the original rumours about the police fighting with the workers were incorrect?
It appears so...apologies on
It appears so...apologies on the hastiness, y'know how it it with the Miami set.
I think the revised facts paint a more encouraging picture: workers willing to confront the army head on and forcing the government to climb down.
Thanks for the update Caiman
Thanks for the update Caiman ! This is such inspiring news. I hope to hear about other actions like this in the future. It certainly does seem like more and more people (not just the intelligentsia) are willing to stand up, make demands and take things into their own hands...and out of the hands of the bureaucrats.