International Workers Solidarity: Cuba shares what it has, Another Cuban medical brigade has arrived in Italy, this time in Turin

The Cuban medical brigade’s arrival in Turin. Photo: Heidy Villuendas

Another Cuban medical brigade has arrived in Italy, this time in Turin, with 21 doctors, 16 nurses and a logistics coordinator, joining the first brigade in Lombardy, the epicenter of the epidemic in the country, to save lives without asking anything in return, because solidarity has no price.

“We share medical care, life, with other peoples,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla tweeted yesterday, recognizing the admirable gesture of these professionals, committed to their own people, but without forgetting others, maintaining humanism as the foundation of their work.

Since their arrival in Turin, the brigade has received countless expressions of gratitude from residents in the region, in the north of the country.

An undeniable reality exposes the slanders of U.S. imperialism, attempting to discredit Cuba’s international medical collaboration. We have nine doctors for every thousand inhabitants, an almost exclusive luxury, and as if that were not enough, in the coming month of July 9,000 more will graduate. We have 84,000 nurses, and 34,000 students are studying nursing and health technology, to serve our population. This is a strength we share.

While the blockade is killing human beings, Cuba is saving lives. There are currently 20 Henry Reeve brigades (425 doctors, 722 nurses, 50 technicians), fighting for the lives of those with COVID-19 around the world.

Cuba: Government Implements New Measures to Prevent COVID-19

So far, Cuba registers 515 COVID-19 confirmed cases, 15 deaths, and 28 recoveries.

Cuba’s Transport Minister Eduardo Rodriguez decided to suspend public and private passenger transportation within urban and rural areas. However, institutions offering essential services must guarantee the mobility of their workers..

RELATED: 

Cuba has Reached Limited Local Transmission Stage of COVID-19

Private carriers would have their operating license suspended and are free from tax payment until the restrictions cease. Means of transportation contracted by the Defense Councils for prioritized services are exempted. 

In vehicles that continue to operate, passengers must use sanitary masks use, wash their hands with chlorine and maintain social distance. In this way, the authorities seek to enforce social isolation and prevent overcrowding.

“Despite the disinfection measures and limited services, there is an increase in mobility and overcrowding in public transport. This is a real risk of contagion,” Rodriguez explained.

Presidencia Cuba@PresidenciaCuba
 

Se declara la etapa de trasmisión autóctona limitada, y el país responde con el refuerzo de las medidas ya implementadas, y tomando otras nuevas en batalla contra la . 🇨🇺 https://www.presidencia.gob.cu/es/noticias/ante-nueva-etapa-epidemiologica-cuba-refuerza-su-batalla-contra-la-covid-19/ 

Ante nueva etapa epidemiológica, Cuba refuerza su batalla contra la COVID-19

En la reunión que encabezan cada tarde el Presidente de la República y el Primer Ministro, se informó que el país entró en la etapa de trasmisión autóctona limitada, con lo cual se refuerzan medidas…

presidencia.gob.cu

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“The limited local transmission stage is declared. The country reinforces the measures already implemented and takes new ones in battle against the COVID-19 pandemic​​​​​​​.”

Internal Trade Minister Betsy Diaz closed large commercial centers to avoid long lines gathering, a paramount action to avoid contagiously.

Another strategy is to increase and promote virtual trading and home deliveries, with a 10 percent discount. 

So far, Cuba registers 515 COVID-19 cases, 15 deaths, and 28 recoveries.​​​​​​​ Havana, a city having over 2 million inhabitants, has the highest number of infected people. ​​​​​​​

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International- The WFTU mourns the passing of cde Komal Chand, member of the WFTU Presidential Council

The big class-oriented and militant trade union family of the WFTU, representing 100 million affiliated workers across the five continents, expresses its deep sorrow after the passing of Cde Komal Chand on 8 April 2020. Cde Komal has been a member of the WFTU Presidential Council since 2005 and the 15th World Trade Union Congress in Havana. He has also served as President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) as well as Member of the Guyana Parliament from 1992 until 2019.

Cde Komal has been a firm, class-oriented militant of the WFTU who has steadily fought for the field and factory workers’ rights in the sugar industry, not only in Guyana but across the whole Caribbean region. He joined the GAWU in 1975 as the Union’s Organizing Secretary and for many decades fervently struggled along with his class brothers and sisters who toiled in the fields and factories of the sugar estates against social exploitation. Soon he became General Secretary and later on was elected President of the GAWU.

Cde Komal Chand has also been a stable militant of the WFTU, an advocate of the class principles and values of the world working class in difficult times. He contributed to the strengthening of the WFTU after the 15th World Trade Union Congress and the promotion of WFTU views on unionism, internationalism and solidarity with the peoples who struggle against imperialism.

His loss is not only a loss for the Guyanese working class but also for the international working class, the international class-oriented trade union movement. The WFTU extends its sincerest condolences to cde Komal’s family, comrades and other relatives and friends.

Frontline Heroes keeping our hospitals clean

Cork University Hospital cleaning and household staff discuss their vital role during the Covid-19 Emergency. We Trade Unionists should be “proud of “the way our members have put their lives on the line for all our citizens. We salute them.

Watch this video

 

 

Educators in Morocco and Palestine donate wages to COVID-19 solidarity fund

As the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) spreads across the world, paralysing entire countries, underprivileged families bear the brunt of the crisis, with parents unable to work and support their children. Educators in Palestine and Morocco have decided to donate part of their wages to help the most vulnerable and the fight against the virus.

With over 1.3 billion students worldwide out of school (over 80% of the global student population), millions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds are missing out on essential social services provided in their schools, such as school meals. To make matters worse, quarantine measures mean that many parents have lost their jobs or cannot leave the house to provide for their children.

Determined to help their students, education unions from Palestine and Morocco have mobilised their members to raise money for national solidarity funds.

 

Palestine: support for the vulnerable

Country-wide school closures in Palestine have affected over 1.6 million students at all levels of education. In this context, the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities Professors and Employees (FUPUPE), Education International member in the country, has decided to encourage its members to donate the wage for one working day to the unemployed and the families of disadvantaged students in Palestine.

 

Morocco: solidarity and union action against crisis profiteering

Nearly 9 million students are unable to attend classes as a result of the country-wide school closures in Morocco. Many of them find themselves in precarious situations.

Trade unions in Morocco, including Education International member Syndicat National de l’Éducation – Confédération Démocratique du Travail (SNE-CDT), have decided to encourage workers and educators to donate three days worth of wages over the next three months to the newly established COVID-19 solidarity fund.

However, while public education workers are showing their solidarity with the most affected, organisations representing private interests in education are lobbying the Moroccan government to obtain tax exemptions and financial assistance to cover workers’ salaries during the COVID-19 school closures. All the while, the same organisations are forcing parents to pay tuition while private schools are closed. In addition, just a few months ago, private education interest groups won a major tax reduction from the Moroccan government.

Education International and SNE-CDT have sent an official letter to the Prime Minister of Morocco, asking for this crisis profiteering to not be tolerated and for the government to distance itself from private education providers that only deepen inequalities and segregation in the country

A Socialist attempt in trying to deal with Covid-19: Cuba’s Contribution to Combating COVID-19

Helen Yaffe

COVID-19 surged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019, and by January 2020 it had hit Hubei province like a tidal wave, swirling over China and rippling out overseas. The Chinese state rolled into action to combat the spread and to care for those infected. Among the thirty medicines the Chinese National Health Commission selected to fight the virus was a Cuban anti-viral drug, Interferon Alpha 2b. This drug has been produced in China since 2003, by the enterprise ChangHeber, a Cuban-Chinese joint venture.

Cuban Interferon Alpha 2b has proven effective for viruses with characteristics similar to those of COVID-19. Cuban biotech specialist Dr. Luis Herrera Martinez explained, “its use prevents aggravation and complications in patients, reaching that stage that ultimately can result in death.” Cuba first developed and used interferons to arrest a deadly outbreak of the dengue virus in 1981, and the experience catalyzed the development of the island’s now world-leading biotech industry.

The world’s first biotechnology enterprise, Genetech, was founded in San Francisco in 1976, followed by AMGen in Los Angeles in 1980. One year later, the Biological Front, a professional interdisciplinary forum, was set up to develop the industry in Cuba. While most developing countries had little access to the new technologies (recombinant DNA, human gene therapy, biosafety), Cuban biotechnology expanded and took on an increasingly strategic role in both the public health sector and the national economic development plan. It did so despite the US blockade obstructing access to technologies, equipment, materials, finance, and even knowledge exchange. Driven by public health demand, it has been characterized by the fast track from research and innovation to trials and application, as the story of Cuban interferon shows.

Interferons are “signaling” proteins produced and released by cells in response to infections that alert nearby cells to heighten their anti-viral defenses. They were first identified in 1957 by Jean Lindenmann and Aleck Isaacs in London. In the 1960s Ion Gresser, a US researcher in Paris, showed that interferons stimulate lymphocytes that attack tumors in mice. In the 1970s, US oncologist Randolph Clark Lee took up this research.

Catching the tail end of US President Carter’s improved relations with Cuba, Dr. Clark Lee visited Cuba, met with Fidel Castro, and convinced him that interferon was the wonder drug. Shortly afterwards, a Cuban doctor and a hematologist spent time in Dr. Clark Lee’s laboratory, returning with the latest research about interferon and more contacts. In March 1981, six Cubans spent twelve days in Finland with the Finnish doctor Kari Cantell, who in the 1970s had isolated interferon from human cells and had shared the breakthrough by declining to patent the procedure. The Cubans learned to produce large quantities of interferon.

Within forty-five days of returning to the island, they had produced their first Cuban batch of interferon, the quality of which was confirmed by Cantell’s laboratory in Finland. Just in time, it turned out. Weeks later Cuba was struck by an epidemic of dengue, a disease transmitted by mosquitos. It was the first time this particularly virulent strand, which can trigger life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, had appeared in the Americas. The epidemic affected 340,000 Cubans with 11,000 new cases diagnosed every day at its peak. 180 people died, including 101 children. The Cubans suspected the CIA of releasing the virus. The US State Department denied it, although a recent Cuban investigation claims to provide evidence that the epidemic was introduced from the US.

Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health authorized the use of Cuban interferon to halt the dengue outbreak. It was done at great speed. Mortality declined. In their historical account, Cuban medical scientists Caballero Torres and Lopez Matilla wrote, “It was the most extensive prevention and therapy event with interferon carried out in the world. Cuba began to hold regular symposia, which quickly drew international attention.” The first international event in 1983 was prestigious; Cantell gave the keynote speech and Clark attended with Albert Bruce Sabin, the Polish American scientist who developed the oral polio vaccine.

Convinced about the contribution and strategic importance of innovative medical science, the Cuban government set up the Biological Front in 1981 to develop the sector. Cuban scientists went abroad to study, many in Western countries. Their research took on more innovative paths, as they experimented with cloning interferon. By the time Cantell returned to Cuba in 1986, the Cubans had developed the recombinant human Interferon Alfa 2b, which has benefited thousands of Cubans since then. With significant state investment, Cuba’s showpiece Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) was opened in 1986. By then Cuba was submerged in another health crisis, a serious outbreak of Meningitis B, which further spurred Cuba’s biotechnology sector.

In 1976, Cuba was struck by Meningitis B and C outbreaks. Since 1916 only a few isolated cases had been seen on the island. Internationally, vaccines existed for Meningitis A and C, but not for B. Cuban health authorities secured a vaccine from a French pharmaceutical company to immunize the population against type C Meningitis. However, in the following years, cases of type B Meningitis began to rise. A team of specialists from different medical science centers was established, led by a woman biochemist, Concepción Campa, to work intensively on finding a vaccine.

By 1984 Meningitis B had become the main health problem in Cuba. After six years of intense work, Campa’s team produced the world’s first successful Meningitis B vaccine in 1988. A member of Campa’s team, Dr. Gustavo Sierra, recalled their joy: “this was the moment when we could say it works, and it works in the worst conditions, under pressure of an epidemic and among people of the most vulnerable age.” During 1989 and 1990, three million Cubans, those most at risk, were vaccinated. Subsequently, 250,000 young people were vaccinated with the VA-MENGOC-BC vaccine, a combined Meningitis B and C vaccination. It recorded 95% efficacy overall, with 97% in the high-risk three months to six years age group. Cuba’s Meningitis B vaccine was awarded a UN Gold Medal for global innovation. This was Cuba’s meningitis miracle.

“I tell colleagues that one can work thirty years, fourteen hours a day just to enjoy that graph for ten minutes,” Agustin Lage, Director of the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM), told me, referring to an illustration of the rise and sudden fall of Meningitis B cases in Cuba. “Biotechnology started for this. But then the possibilities of developing an export industry opened up, and today, Cuban biotechnology exports to fifty countries.”

Since its first application to combat dengue fever, Cuba’s interferon has shown its efficacy and safety in the therapy of viral diseases including Hepatitis B and C, shingles, HIV-AIDS, and dengue. Because it interferes with viral multiplication within cells, it has also been used in the treatment of different types of carcinomas. Time will tell if Interferon Alfa 2b proves to be the wonder drug as far as COVID-19 goes.


Helen Yaffe is a lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow. Her teaching focuses on Latin American and Cuban development. Since 1995, she has spent time living and researching in Cuba. Her doctoral thesis was adapted for publication as Che Guevara: The Economics
of Revolution
 in 2009 and she is the co-author of Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid, 2017. She regularly provides commentary on Cuba for the mainstream media. Her most recent book is We Are Cuba! (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300230031/we-are-cuba), which expands on the topic of this blog piece.

Public Hospital Doctors of Greece Protest at Ministry of Healthcare

The National Federation of Public Hospital Doctors of Greece (OENGE) held a protest at the Ministry of Healthcare on Thursday, March 19 demanding immediate measures for the protection of the people’s and doctors health faced with Covid-19 pandemic.

Specifically the doctors denounced the Governments tactics that even today refuse to stuff the Public Hospitals with the necessary doctors and personnel. Additionally the doctors protested for the shortages in necessary materials such as protective masks, gloves, etc.

The Federation also protested symbolically against the measure that prohibits gatherings of more than 10 persons, by 20 doctors standing together with their banner and raising their fists against any prohibition in trade union action.

Photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmM4rVfY

The Federation condemned the provocative stance of the Minister who refused to meet with the delegation of the Doctors under the pretext of the pandemic!

Video: https://youtu.be/tdhKDEqgN-U

Government must immediately intervene and put forward a comprehensive Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme for workers -ICTU

Government must immediately intervene and put forward a comprehensive Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme for workers -ICTU

20 Mar 2020

covid19

General Secretary Patricia King has expressed grave concern at  reports that employers who temporarily lay off workers because of coronavirus will not be refunded for paying them anything over and above the new Covid-19 unemployment payment of €203 per week offered by the State.

Patricia King said this is an unprecedented emergency for  the country, and she called for immediate intervention by Government to immediately develop a ‘Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme for Workers.’  which would seek to  uphold their  net income.

She said “ this will require a tripartite approach to develop this workable solution, and it is absolutely essential that  we mitigate the enormous stress felt by workers and their families, it is time for flexible thinking  and extraordinary solutions to ensure workers have enough to live on”.

Patricia King  said hundrerd of thousands  of workers  will be laid off and businesses have been temporarily  closed in this unprecedented emergency .  We are in extraordinary times which demands extraordinary solutions.

Covid-19: Advice to Fórsa members

Fórsa members are advised follow the HSE advice on protecting yourself and others from the coronavirus.

Reporting for work

The union advises members to report for work as normal unless:

  • You have been told not to attend work by your manager or HR department
  • Remote working arrangements have been put in place, and you have been told to work at home by your manager or HR department
  • You have a medical reason for not attending work
  • You are self-isolating on medical or HSE advice.

If you are in vulnerable group (ie, if you are over 60 or have a long-term medical condition like heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, cancer or high blood pressure), you should phone your doctor for advice before attending work. Please don’t attend the doctor’s surgery unless specifically advised to do so.

The HSE has also advised pregnant women to take extra care. So, if you are pregnant, you might also want to phone your doctor for advice before attending work.

Fórsa policy on Covid-19 and the workplace

The union’s elected national officers met last Friday (13th March) and agreed the following:

“Fórsa and its members across the civil, public, private, voluntary and semi-state sectors are committed to co-operating fully with emergency measures necessary to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus, protect the health and safety of citizens and workers, and maintain essential services during this unprecedented public health emergency.

“The union will continue to advise its members to co-operate with all necessary measures, including some that might not be acceptable in normal times, so long as employers consult with the appropriate unions, respect existing collective agreements, and reach agreement with the union if they feel it necessary to waive aspects of collective agreements in the short-term.”

Members are strongly advised to co-operate with management in its efforts to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus.

 

Members are strongly advised to co-operate with management in its efforts to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus, protect the health and safety of citizens and workers, and maintain essential services – including when this means doing different things, in different ways, at different times.

Guidance issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last Thursday (12th March) said staff redeployment across the civil and public services could be required to ensure the maintenance of essential services. It also called for the reassignment of staff within organisations to prioritise the most critical services.

The union is in constant liaison with management to ensure that appropriate protective and containment measures are in place.

If you have genuine concerns about the health and safety of yourself or others, or if you genuinely believe that collective agreements are being seriously breached without union consultation, you should contact the union HERE.

Volunteering for urgent tasks

The union expects management in various parts of the civil and public service to seek volunteers for redeployment to the HSE to undertake urgent work such as contact-tracing and staffing helplines. The civil service is also likely to seek redeployments into the Department of Employment and Social Protection to deal with expected increase in workloads there. Fórsa strongly urges members to volunteer if they are able to do so, and to co-operate with requirements arising from such redeployments.

Fórsa strongly urges members to volunteer if they are able to do so, and to co-operate with requirements arising from such redeployments.

 

Protections for public servants who contract the virus or self-isolate

Civil and public servants who contract the Covid-19 virus, or who are advised to self-isolate by a medical practitioner, will receive basic pay including fixed allowances from day one. Coronavirus-related sick leave will not be counted as part of the employee’s sick leave record, so long as they have medical or HSE confirmation of the need to self-isolate.

Childcare difficulties

Guidance issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last Thursday (12th March) called on managers and employees to be flexible in circumstances where staff have to mind children on foot of school or crèche closures. In this regard, it recommends measures like home working, flexible shifts, or longer opening hours. It advises staff who experience coronavirus-related childcare difficulties to stay in regular contact with their managers.

Guidance issued by the Government has called on managers and employees to be flexible in circumstances where staff have to mind children on foot of school or crèche closures.

 

Fórsa is here to support you

Fórsa is here to protect you if you have problems arising from the coronavirus or other workplace issues. The best way to contact the union at this time is HERE.

We will deal with queries as quickly as we can but, needless to say, the union will prioritise cases where members’ jobs and incomes are at immediate risk – as well as any serious health and safety issues that may arise.

Union business

Fórsa has cancelled all face-to-face meetings for the time being. The union is redeploying its staff to prioritise engagement with management on proposals arising from the Covid-19 public health crisis, and to provide rapid and efficient responses to members’ queries and concerns.

Wherever possible, Fórsa staff have been equipped to work remotely. Therefore, members should NOT attend Fórsa offices at this time. If you have a query or concern, the best way to raise it is to contact the union HERE.

This item was first published on forsa.ie on Sunday 15th March.

WFTU Declaration on the International Working Women’s Day 8 March 2020

On the occasion of this year’s March 8th anniversary, the World Federation of Trade Union addresses a warm militant greeting to every woman all over the globe, working or unemployed, self-employed, in the city or in the countryside, young mother, student, retiree, refugee or immigrant, life fighters of the everyday.

We all, stand on the side of the women who struggle with the WFTU and the international class-oriented movement, and strongly believe in the necessity of the organization of the women’s fight for real equality and do not limit our militancy and struggles just in one day a year.

2020 is the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the World Federation of Trade Unions’ struggle and action since its founding in 1945. 75 years in which we are constantly fighting for the true equality of women, for a system that will free them from the double repression of their gender and class, for a system without man-to-man exploitation.

In this struggle, men and women are allies and they walk side by side in social and political action, claiming a life as we deserve, for their families: without wars and refugees, with constant and full-time work, with decent salaries and full insurance rights, with state infrastructures providing free public health, education, social welfare for all.

International Women Day is a symbol of struggle, sanctioned with the suggestion of socialist Clara Zetkin in 1911. It is a day dedicated to the strike of the New York women garment workers in 1857, demanding equal pay with their male colleagues, reduced working hours and human working conditions, and stood up to their employers and their state.

However today, 163 years later, all these are still demanded. Job intensification has increased, flexible forms of work tend to become the norm, in many countries women are still paid less than their male colleagues for the same job.

But not only that. Today, in 2020, with such development in science and technology, women still die during childbirth, due to lack of medical care, they do not go to school because of their gender, become victims of trafficking and are forced into prostitution, are drowning in the sea with their children in their arms, trying to avoid the bombs.

We, as the World Federation of Trade Unions, reject all policies aim to serve the large multinationals in order to continually increase their profits. This is the real reason behind every war, every anti-insurance law, every cut in wages and benefits, the shrinking of the social state. And finally, this is the real causality of inequality of the woman in every expression.

We believe that the best way to honor International Women’s Day is to continue our struggles against these policies and their perpetrators. Until the complete emancipation of every woman in every corner of the planet.

We will not stop until we do it!