ICMLPO in Europe on NATO and the upcoming European Parliament elections, Jill Stein and New York ballot access, graduation protests, and more anti-war news

According to the Independent Weekly, protesters put handprints on South Building, the UNC-Chapel Hill administration building, with red paint and left a sign saying "UNC has blood on its hands" a few hours before the graduation ceremonies on Saturday, May 11th (under cover of darkness?).  In recent years a history is forming of red blood and/or paint being daubed on UNC monuments and buildings, which presumably would be the crime of vandalism, though abundant paint has been accidentally and intentionally put on UNC's brick walkways and plazas and other features.  Is there any actual evidence that students put up the handprints?  UNC's graduation speaker was Zena Cardman, an astronaut and UNC alumna.  Lee Roberts also spoke at Kenan Stadium.  Around 6,700 students graduated.  UNC educators resisted turning in final grades in protest a few years ago, but not now?

At Duke University on May 12th about 100 graduates walked out before Jerry Seinfeld spoke at Wallace Wade Stadium, around 10:35am, according to Indy Week and the Duke Chronicle. There had been leafletting beforehand and there was a people's graduation at the Languages Building.

PSL organized a march in Raleigh May 11th, for the upcoming 76th Nakba Day?

An article on the Chapel Hill/Carrboro's old left bookstore, Internationalist Books (it closed several years ago, after a few decades in operation), was in UNC's Daily Tar Heel in late April:  www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/04/lifestyle-internationalist-bookstore-legacy-in-chapel-hill-bob-sheldon

On the recent auroras and CMEs, visible as far south as Puerto Rico in the Northern Hemisphere over the past few nights:  www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/05/13/edkj-m13.html

The May 13, 1999 NATO bombing of Korisa in Kosova; the May 15, 1974 storming of the Netiv Meir Elementary School, held by DFLP guerrillas, killing the three militants and 31 civilians or hostages, including 25 children; Israel bombed Lebanese refugee camps May 16th;  May 12, 1949 the British Parliament approved the treaty to join NATO and May 18th two Labour Party members who had voted against were purged by Labour:  www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/05/13/dcdl-m13.html

www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/the-sudden-hesitation-over-israels

www.mintpressnews.com/new-lines-magazine-washington-weaponizes-media/287375/

Capitalists (and Alan Dershowitz) promise far-reaching private retaliation against student protesters for their free speech (liberals like to point out that the 1st amendment doesn't apply to companies and liberals or those further right say that speech has consequences):  diario-octubre.com/2024/05/12/grandes-empresas-de-eeuu-amenazan-a-estudiantes-a-favor-de-gaza/

Does the Biden administration plan to blame China if or when Ukraine loses? – www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/13/us-is-losing-in-ukraine-blame-china-says-blinken/

Did the US goverment let Ukraine's SBU kill Chilean-American Gonzalo Lira? – diario-octubre.com/2024/01/14/zajarova-la-casa-blanca-es-responsable-de-la-muerte-del-periodista-gonzalo-lira-encarcelado-en-ucrania/

www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2024/05/13/u-s-activists-condemn-acquittal-of-attacker-against-cuban-embassy/

www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/12/small-islands-deadly-stakes/

The Bushnell's Men hacking group:  thecradle.co/articles/bushnells-men-hack-30000-western-printers-in-protest-of-gaza-genocide

The US student intifada:  Palestine's new soft power leverage – thecradle.co/articles-id/24649

thecradle.co/articles/us-offers-israel-intel-on-hamas-leaders-in-exchange-for-limited-rafah-op

www.nknews.org/2024/05/both-north-and-south-korea-back-un-resolution-calling-for-palestinian-membership/

thecradle.co/articles/hamas-reorganizes-in-gazas-north-battles-invading-army-in-rafah

thecradle.co/articles/yemens-strategic-escalation-into-the-mediterranean

Yemen expands front against Israel to include the Mediterranean Sea:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24712

EU naval mission falls apart against Yemen:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24740

Bahraini resistance opens front against Israel [Saraya al-Ashtar/Al-Ashtar Brigades]:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24698

ISIS kills Palestinian fighters in Syrian desert [Liwa al-Quds]:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24478

To Israel's horror, Hamas brings 'two-state solution' back into focus:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24687

thecradle.co/articles/the-pijs-defiance-amid-diplomacy-gaza-will-not-be-allowed-to-fall

Israeli organ-trafficking network busted in Turkiye:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24729

Mass graves:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24783

thecradle.co/articles/shocking-abuse-of-gazans-inside-israeli-detention-camp-whistleblowers

Israel gives extremist settler 'absolute' control of occupied West Bank:  thecradle.co/articles-id/24714

thecradle.co/articles/frustrated-israeli-north-plans-to-secede-into-state-of-galilee

thecradle.co/articles/the-gaza-aid-pier-a-us-geopolitical-ploy

thecradle.co/articles/dialing-down-expectations-on-a-us-saudi-security-pact

www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/11/biden-blinks-bibi-bites-blinken-rewrites/

www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/12/oh-how-violent-hollywood-usc-and-the-sickness-of-denial/

portside.org/2024-05-13/israeli-war-gaza-post-war-scenarios

From Bon Appetit:  portside.org/2024-05-13/food-blogger-cooking-through-gazas-hunger-crisis

In Puerto Rico:  diario-octubre.com/2024/05/12/quitan-la-bandera-de-ee-uu-e-izan-la-de-🇵🇸-palestina-en-universidad-de-puerto-rico-video/

In Mexico:  revcom.us/en/mexico-encampment-unam-against-us-imperialism-backed-israeli-state-genocide-and-solidarity

revcom.us/en/anti-semitism-awareness-act-banning-opposition-zionism-crushing-academic-freedom

Israeli lawsuits:  theintercept.com/2024/05/10/october-7-survivors-lawsuit-palestine-hamas-sjp-protests/

chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-willing-executioners

geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-israel-nuclear-weapons-gaza

A bipartisan war:  www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/05/13/ezhc-m13.html

diario-octubre.com/2024/05/13/admision-de-nuevos-miembros-en-las-naciones-unidas/

Mobilization in Ukraine:  diario-octubre.com/2024/05/12/kiev-promete-poner-fin-a-la-vida-tranquila-de-los-hombres-ucranianos-lejos-del-frente/

Benin and Niger:  diario-octubre.com/2024/05/13/francia-esta-desestabilizando-niger-a-traves-de-benin/

US smallpox biological weapon research under Biden and Soros? -- diario-octubre.com/2024/01/16/moscu-ee-uu-experimenta-con-cepas-del-virus-de-la-viruela-a-pesar-de-la-prohibicion-de-la-oms/

fair.org/home/the-media-mogul-trying-to-buy-baltimores-mayoral-race/

Judging protest movements by whether a Biden can get elected, as if the anti-Vietnam War protests or the Gaza solidarity encampments were about keeping a pro-war Democrat in the White House (note that I didn't read beyond the paywall)  And abortion rights? – www.slowboring.com/p/did-the-vietnam-war-protests-backfire

The No War But the Class War Conference will be May 31-June 2 at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus and is being organized by Historical Materialism, The Institute for the Critical Imagination, and the Left Forum, serving as a replacement for the old Left Forum conference.  Speakers will include Kali Akuno, David Harvey, Chris Hedges, Sophie Lewis, Andreas Malm, and Helga Tawil-Souri.  Attention to the "moralism" and "Manichean perspective" of the current anti-war movement and the lack of systematic analysis.  The Torch (IWP) is organizing "a panel on The need for a genuine revolutionary party of the working class and the fight against sectarianism."  Contact:  HM.IRI.NYC at gmail

For more information and tickets:  www.eventbrite.com/e/hm-iri-conference-no-war-but-the-class-war-tickets-841674640507

Jill Stein:  This is do or die for our campaign [New York's punitive ballot access rules, created by the Democratic Party] 

Right now our campaign is fighting an intense battle against the biggest challenge we’ve faced yet. We need tens of thousands more signatures to get on the ballot in New York - and with just two weeks left, we’re behind where we need to be.

From the bottom of my heart, I’m asking every one of you to do whatever you can now to help us get on the ballot in New York and keep us on track to put an anti-genocide, pro-worker, climate action campaign on every single ballot across the country.

[Join in at:  www.jillstein2024.com/nyballot  There is also a state by state ballot access map linked on the main site]

Genocide in Gaza is going off the charts right now with the assault on Rafah, where 1.4 million people have been herded like cattle and are now targeted like fish in a barrel - including 600,000 wounded, malnourished, sick, traumatized children. With Israel's closure of the Rafah crossing last week choking off the little water and food that were getting in, and bombing the entire Gaza strip, this is a grand finale to 75 years of ethnic cleansing. 

We must do everything in our power to shut this genocide down. That means turning up the political demand by getting our opposition to genocide on the ballot in New York - ensuring this is a national force that cannot be stopped!

To make that happen, we urgently need volunteers as well as people who would like to get paid to petition. If you can come, let us know and we’ll get in touch to make arrangements for your visit, including accommodations if you need them. If you live within a bus ride of New York, and need help getting there, we can help you get there. We also need folks in NY or nearby who can provide housing or transportation for petitioners.

However you can help, please sign up now:

[ www.jillstein2024.com/nyballot ]

We also need everyone to donate whatever you can to help fund this urgent ballot drive. Every dollar you can donate moves us closer to the critical goal of getting 45,000 valid signatures in New York. Please pitch in as much as you can now to help make it happen - all donations will be matched up to the first $250 by federal matching funds!

[Donate now:  www.jillstein2024.com/donation_ny ]

Watch my new short video about this urgent fight and help spread the word by sharing it on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

In this historic moment of surging resistance to empire, our campaign is building momentum fast. A recent CBS poll from Wisconsin had us at 8% in a 3-way race, including 22% among voters 18-30 and 16% among voters 30-44. Our media coverage has exploded, and endorsements are rolling in, from Professor Jeffrey Sachs to Medea Benjamin, Kyle Kulinski, Jenan Matari, Andy Shallal, Professor Anthony Zenkus, and more.

If we get on the ballot in New York, it will shock the establishment and power our campaign to complete our ballot access nationwide - a process that’s over 75% completed already. With multiple systemic crises hitting at the same time and rejection of the establishment candidates at a record high, the sky's the limit for what lies ahead in this race - including a real shot at the White House.

This is do or die for our campaign. And it's do or die for putting opposition to genocide front and center in this election. Every day matters and every signature counts. 

If you can collect signatures in New York, we need your help now. If you can donate to help us fund our petition drive, please pitch in whatever you can now.

If you believe in this movement for people, planet, and peace, I ask you to join me in this historic moment and do whatever you can to help us get on the ballot in New York now!

[ www.jillstein2024.com/nyballot ]

Please share this urgent message with your friends, family, and fellow activists. We can do this if we all work together, but we need everyone to answer the call.

Thank you for everything you do to fight for an America and a world that works for all of us!

In gratitude,

Jill Stein

[Donate now:  www.jillstein2024.com/donation_ny ]

Scintilla #145 – piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/scintilla-n-145-maggio-2024/

May 11th – piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/i-75-anni-della-nato-diciamo-no-alle-vostre-guerre-di-terrore-e-saccheggio/  

May 12th – piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/elezioni-del-parlamento-europeo-una-truffa-democratica/  

Scintilla #145, May 2024 by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

75th Anniversary of NATO; No to your wars of terror and plunder!

Resolution of European Parties and Organizations members of the ICMLPO, adopted in April 2024 (the signatories are listed at the end).

According to the preamble of the NATO Treaty, it defends ''peace, democracy, freedom and the rule of law''. In fact, it is the opposite: it has been and is a military alliance of Western imperialist states to impose their economic and political interests by military means. NATO is a guarantee for war, not peace. It is a guarantee for national subservience to U.S. interests, not for independence.

From the beginning, it has been led by U.S. imperialism, which has always provided the military high command. It had been a tool of U.S. imperialism against the Soviet Union and the labor and communist movement. Since 1949, the Atlantic Alliance and its member states have been engaged in numerous brutal wars. NATO has also meant a steady increase in military spending at the expense of the working masses.

Instead of ''freedom and the rule of law'', NATO means exploitation, oppression and war. Dictatorships such as those of Portugal under Salazar or Turkey under General Evren have never been an obstacle to NATO membership and still are not.

NATO was and is a leading participant in numerous imperialist and neo-colonialist wars. In 1999, NATO attacked Serbia and continued to do so in the Kosovo war. Since 2001, it has used lies as a pretext for the war against Afghanistan, which ended in defeat in August 2021. In 2011, NATO states attacked Libya and largely destroyed the country. NATO has also intervened in Turkey's fight against Syria since 2013 and has supported Turkey militarily.

Atlantic Alliance troops are currently deployed in Africa, the Balkans, the Mediterranean and Iraq.

In recent years there has been a continuous process of NATO expansion to the east, which is the main cause of the current war between the imperialist powers of the USA, NATO and the EU against Russian imperialism.

At the same time, NATO is giving massive support to the war in Ukraine by providing infrastructure, weapons and advisers. NATO is in an unofficial war with Russia. In Israel's war against Gaza, NATO states are actively participating in war crimes and genocide by providing weapons and political support. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg has assured Israel that NATO is on its side.

The struggle between the imperialist blocs of NATO with the EU against imperialist China with Russia has become a serious danger to peace. The EU, in alliance with US imperialism, plays a complementary role with its common policy of ''security and defense'', in a logic of division of labor. The EU is also using the situation to strengthen its role in the competition with the US.

All this is being carried out at the expense of the working class and its social and political achievements. The workers and peoples are suffering heavily from the consequences of NATO's war plans and their implementation by governments: cuts in social spending, high prices for basic products, pressure on wages, tax increases, etc.

Nationalists, reactionaries and fascist movements have been further strengthened to make the peoples "ready for war". We are therefore taking political action in our countries to withdraw from NATO! We are against any participation in NATO wars!

No to NATO! Out of NATO and all imperialist military alliances!

No to the European Military Union!

NATO and US bases out of our countries!

No to the arms race and to the sending of weapons!

Immediate withdrawal from war missions abroad!

Peace and friendship among peoples, instead of rearmament and war!

Scintilla #145, May 2024 by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

European Parliament elections: a "democratic" scam

Resolution of European Parties and Organizations members of ICMLPO

The EU presents itself as an island of prosperity, security and freedom. For the European Parliament elections on 9 June, the propaganda is about democracy.

The people were never consulted when the EU was founded. It was a project of capital. Referendums in which the EU failed were ignored or repeated until the desired result emerged.

For example, when the majority of the Danish people rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, there was another referendum the following year in which a small majority was reached after incessant propaganda.

For example, in 2005 when the "European Constitution" was rejected by a large majority in France and the Netherlands, this was not accepted by those in power. On the contrary, work on the project continued under another name and without a referendum, and in 2007 the "Lisbon Treaty" was concluded with the same content.

Instead of an island of prosperity, security and freedom, the EU is a project of capital for a huge labor market with low wages, a huge outlet market and a tool in competition with other imperialist powers. The EU has also increasingly developed as an instrument of military power with joint armaments and military maneuvers. With the war in Ukraine, this aspect has taken on a special significance. The EU is also an instrument of neocolonial influence of the monopolies in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

In Europe, the EU is an expanding imperialist power with an anti-working-class character: it increases competition between workers in different countries, lowering wages and worsening working conditions. To the detriment of small farmers, the EU is also a tool of agribusiness, which has ruined thousands of farmers.

Not in the service of peace and friendship among peoples, but of the domination of monopolies and capital.

Reformist groups such as the "European Left", which brings together various reformist, revisionist and Trotskyist currents, promise to "democratize" the EU and transform it into a "democratic, peaceful, social and ecological Europe". These are illusions that conceal the domination of capital. The progressive forces are thus harnessed to the chariot of a capitalist and imperialist project. The European Parliament is part of this imperialist apparatus and is not a democratic institution. Therefore, we do not participate and cannot support any list. In addition, the European Parliament is used by right-wing parties to gain influence.

Instead of defending the EU of monopolies, the workers and peoples must fight for their own interests and unite for them. Instead of hoping for election results in the EU, they must stand up to exploitation and war!

We call on the workers to develop struggles and unity on the basis of their own class interests, against the monopolies and the capitalist offensive, the reaction and war policy of imperialism. We call for the development of active solidarity with the workers and peoples of the world, especially with those peoples who suffer and fight imperialist and Zionist oppression, aggression and plunder, such as the Palestinian people.

We reaffirm our commitment to a revolutionary break with the capitalist-imperialist system, to socialism!

With these intentions and this perspective, we must fight together

– Against low wages and the very denial of wages!

– Against the destruction of jobs!

– For the full right to strike!

– Against social cuts!

– Against the dismantling of democratic rights!

– Against racism, division and fascism!

– Against armaments and war!

– For peace, international solidarity and socialism!

April 2024

Workers' Communist Party of Denmark – APK

Communist Party of the Workers of France – PCOF

Organization for the Construction of a Communist Party of the Workers of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)

Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy

Marxist-Leninist organization Revolusjon – Norway

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCEML

      Workers' Party, EMEP, of Turkey

A Verdade on Cuba's electoral system + Some upcoming events, including anti-war protests 4/2

Register for the GDR event at:  peoplesforum.org/events/the-untold-successes-of-german-democratic-republic/

The Friends of the Chatham County Library will have in-person sales March 30th - April 1st and September 21st - 23rd:  www.friendsccl.org/  and they have an online store at friendsccl.org/Store

The Digging Durham Seed Library is open:  durhamcountylibrary.org/digging-durham-seed-library/  

The annual North Carolina Science Festival will be April 1 - 30 with events throughout the State: ncsciencefestival.org/ 

The NC SciFest will be at Cary's Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve April 1st [just postponed to the 2nd] 10am - 1pm.

The Great Raleigh Market will be at the NC Fairgrounds April 1 - 2. 

The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA is organizing protests around the country against US/NATO war with Russia and China Sunday, April 2nd:  revcom.us/en/dont-stand-aside-join-others-protest

[I forgot that there was also this call for protests on April 2nd worldbeyondwar.org/on-april-2nd-lets-take-peace-into-our-own-hands/ and www.pressenza.com/author/europa-per-la-pace/ ]

The NC Botanical Garden's Annual McNeill Sims Native Plant Lecture will be Sunday, April 2nd 5:30 - 6:45pm, with a hybrid and free format:  ncbg.unc.edu/event/annual-evelyn-mcneill-sims-native-plant-lecture-architects-of-abundance-indigenous-regenerative-land-management-and-the-excavation-of-hidden-history/

[Quarterly anti-torture vigils (and monthly peace vigils – STN announcement:

As part of the international movement to close the United States' notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, NC Stop Torture Now is supporting international vigils and organizing quarterly vigils in North Carolina. The next vigil will take place at noon on Wednesday, April 5, at the Federal Building, 300 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh.

 

The vigils are also calling for the release or fair, speedy legal processing of the remaining prisoners, and accountability for the United States' use of torture, rendition and post-9-11 detention at Guantanamo and the so-called "black site" prisons.

North Carolina served as the staging ground for rendition flights to torture during the “war on terror.” There has been no investigation or accountability of the state's role in the CIA's use of rendition and torture. Prisoners were seized abroad and transported by Smithfield-based Aero Contractors to secret CIA black sites or in some cases to Guantanamo.

 

Please join us for the first vigil on Wednesday, April 5 at noon in Raleigh. We will join peace activists at their monthly vigil at the Federal Building at 300 Fayetteville St. 

Our second vigil will be Monday, June 26 (time and address to be announced), UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture at Aero Contractors headquarters in Johnston County [at the airport]. Over the full length of the Bush Administration’s rendition program, Aero transported at least 34 of the known 119 CIA black-site prisoners, plus at least 15 of those sent by the CIA to other, often secret sites, where most were tortured. 

Our final vigils will be in September and December at sites to be announced. We hope continued and renewed pressure will highlight the need to close this international symbol of torture, and push Governor Roy Cooper to finally investigate our state’s illegal role in kidnapping, and aiding and abetting torture.]

JC Raulston Arboretum at NCSU will have plant sales online Thursday, April 6th and in-person April 28 – 29th

The NC Botanical Garden's Twilight Thursdays, when it will be open until 7pm, for equity, will be April 6 - June 15th and August 17 - September 28th.

The annual NC Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice, inspired by Nicaraguan examples, will be in Raleigh April 7th, Good Friday:

Dear Cohorts, Co-Conspirators, Co-Defendants and Co-Dependents:

It's Lent and Good Friday looms April 7 so the Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice needs your help. 

We hope you will walk with us to remember the "outcasts" and in opposition to all forms of imperialism. 

We need speakers at each stop, readers for the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Capitol 

and suggestions for themes for each station. A "sag wagon" with water is also needed.

 

We want to have speakers/prayer at each walk stop and a reading and prayer at each station at the Capitol. 

Please let us know if you can join us April 7 

or take on a role such as writing and reading a station. 

   Peace, Tirzah, Gail and Patrick

 

Good Friday Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice

 (Walk with us or Meet at the Capitol)

When: Good Friday, April 7, 9 a.m.

Begin at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Gardens 1215 MLK Jr. Blvd. Raleigh

2. Women's Prison (N.C. "Correctional" Institution for Women 1034 Bragg St.) End Mass Incarceration; Free All Mothers

3. Central Prison 1300 Western Boulevard (abolish the death penalty)

4. The Women's Center 400 S. West St. (end homelessness, provide affordable housing)

5. Wake Country Jail 330 S Salisbury St. (end cash bond, stop racist jail/prison industrial complex)

6. North Carolina Justice Center 224 S. Dawson St. (welcome immigrants, support workers right to organize, Black Lives Matter)

7. State Capitol (arrive at noon) for Peace and Justice Way of the Cross (end all wars, feed the hungry, liberty to captives, health care for all, abolish ICE, stop voter oppression)

For more information contact  Witness for Peace SE Director Tirzah Villegas [  ] or Patrick O’Neill [  ]

There will be a Carolina Wetlands Association meet and greet in Raleigh April 12th 6 - 8pm.

A Carteret County, NC seed library will open April 14th:

[The UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens' plant sale will be April 6 - 8th. 

From the Haw River Assembly – 

The Third Fork Creek Trash Trout litter trap is scheduled to be cleaned out April 1st:  docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScecuMpJaumTOYGJ4C4hT3074SIvoPnCnKne4kmXkWH_Tn8jg/viewform

The HRA Lobby Day will be April 5th in Raleigh.

Burlington climate change talk

May Memorial Library in Burlington will be co-hosting a program at 3 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22^nd, about climate change, the misinformation that surrounds the topic, and the impact it will have locally on our agricultural community. The event will feature light refreshments and a special guest speaker, Dr. Ademe Mekonnen, a climate and atmospheric scientist from NC A & T University. The library is located at 342 S Spring St, Burlington, NC 27253

The HRA's blog:  hawriver.org/riverkeeper/

The previous calendar is posted at:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/02/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html

A Verdade #267, March 2023

A newspaper of the workers in the struggle for socialism

Is Cuba a dictatorship?

The Cuban electoral system

Pioneers. Cuban children inspect the ballot box [photo.]

Savio Peres
Pinar del rio (Cuba)

One of the countries that fascists and liberals attack most in Latin America is Cuba. They shout that Cuba is a dictatorship and that the Castro family owns the island. They even say that in Cuba there are no elections. However, in Cuba not only do elections exist, but they also have active popular participation.

In 2019, a new constitution was approved in Cuba (the country has already approved more than three constitutions since the 1959 Revolution). In this way, legislative updates were subsequently made, such as a new Criminal Code, the Code of Families and Electoral Law No. 127 – the latter will serve as the basis for this article.

Municipal Assemblies

The first thing to understand is that the Cuban electoral process has two forms – one direct and the other indirect. Let us start with the Municipal Assemblies, which is one of the direct voting processes. In Cuba, each municipality has a Municipal Assembly. The Municipal Electoral Council meets months before the elections and makes a proposal to divide the municipality into constituencies.

From there, a delegate (what we call councilor) is elected by the constituency of the municipality. To make it easier to understand, in comparison with Brazil, suppose that Barreiro (region of the city of Belo Horizonte) is a region of the Municipality of Belo Horizonte. Then the people of Barreiro will elect a person from the region to represent them in the Municipal Assembly. In the same way that the residents of Pampulha will elect the representative of their region and so on until the Municipal Assembly is formed.

How do you run within a constituency? Suppose you want to be a delegate of your neighborhood within the Municipal Assembly. Then, before the electoral contest begins, a popular assembly is organized in that neighborhood. This assembly is open to everyone and the people in the constituency who want to run make themselves available, argue why they want to be candidates. In this previous people's assembly, all citizens have the right to speak for or against the person's candidacy.

After the open discussion within this assembly, there is the first vote in the assembly itself (open and public), which will elect the people who can run for delegate (minimum of two and, at most, eight elected). Those with the most votes will have their biographies presented in the localities defined by the law and, finally, days later, each citizen will be able to go to the polls to choose who will vote for the delegate of the municipality in free, equal, direct and secret voting.

An important observation: the vote is on paper and the counting of votes is done publicly, in the presence of the candidates, the members of the electoral bodies, the representatives of the political and mass organizations and any other person (voter or not) who wishes. Here there is the possibility of a second round if necessary.

National Assembly

The election for deputy of the National Assembly is also made by free, equal, direct and secret vote by the population. To be a candidate for deputy of the National Assembly also goes through a previous ballot, both by bodies called candidacy committees, as well as by the Municipal Assemblies themselves.

There are three types of electoral commissions: municipal, provincial and national. The members of these commissions are representatives of the Cuban Workers' Federation (CTC), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), the National Association of Small Farmers, the University Student Federation (FEU) and the Federation of High School Students.

These commissions organize the list of people who will be proposed as candidates for the National Assembly, in a complex and interconnected process, and people who have already been elected within the Municipal Assembly (delegates) and people from outside the Municipal Assembly must be chosen, in a proportion of, at most, 50% of municipal delegates.

In the end, this list goes through a vote within the Municipal Assemblies of People's Power, and some people may be removed from the process if they do not have half the votes of the delegates of their municipalities.

Once the nomination of the candidates is over, the dissemination of their biographies by the broad media begins for a certain period of time, and then the voting is carried out by the population – along the same lines as the election for delegates.

Once the deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power have been elected, this body will elect the President, Vice-President and Secretary of State – an indirect election at this stage.

Therefore, to say that Cuba is a dictatorship is, in fact, to ignore the democratic and participatory electoral process of this country. It is worth mentioning that on March 26, Cuba held its direct vote for new members of the National Assembly.