No War on Cuba! in SF Action on Market & Powell

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

(San Francisco, May 31) - I must admit to a certain satisfaction in seeing the ethically unhousebroken buffoon in what's both figuratively and literally left of the White House being utterly played by adults on the international stage.

Sponsored by Bay Area peace groups and with the participation of The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Code Pink, Answer Coalition, Veterans for Peace and others, activists brought to Market and Powell Streets a message of opposition to yet another Trump war of aggression.

As if it was not enough for the world's strongest nation to maintain its economic strangulation of the small island nation of Cuba, Trump is trying to literally starve Cuba to death by depriving it of the fuel to keep the lights on. Some theorize that Trump is attempting to compensate for his inability to defeat Iran.

Here is the great "deal maker" whose every attempt at business while an ordinary citizen has failed, but widely successful using his father's money as a gangster politician, the head of the nation's executive branch is proving incapable of even administrating the repair of a decorative pool in a national monument.

The man child that could not resist being flattered into sending the nation into a pointless war is pretending that it has all gone flawlessly and is living the fantasy that ending the war depends only on what he condescends to allow. Unable to admit event to himself that the war is a world class disaster, he attempts to compensated by sending the world's largest military against a tiny island nation that is suffering from six decades of economic strangulation by the US for having committing the crime of kicking out mob connected corporations and instituting a socialist economy.

Unable to create a cogent rationale for attacking Iran, Trump repeats the Netanyahu created mantra, blindly accepted by the US chattering media and intoned with the reverence and solemnity usually accorded the recitations of Newton's law of universal gravitation, that Iran must "never" be allowed to build a nuclear weapon.

While Iran is certainly no angel in the mass murder and war crimes sphere, the US and Israel have since the end of WW2 committed more acts of aggression and war crimes than most other countries. No country possessing the bomb has ever had its existence threatened by another country, while countries in possession of nuclear weapons have routinely threatened non nuclear powers, as does the US and Israel. In view of their genocidal contempt for international law, it must be said that it is the US and Israel that must never allowed to have nuclear weapons unless their potential victims also do.

The most hideous of all inventions guarantees survival in the face of military behemoths. See North Korea.

The action heard Tarmel Abbott deliver the following message from Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin.

Regarding an Alleged Government Investigation Into March Cuba Trip Contrary to rumors, I have not received any subpoena from the U.S. government. Perhaps one is on the way. But let me be clear: we did nothing wrong during our March 2026 trip to Cuba.

On the contrary, we acted as moral U.S. citizens trying to bring some relief to a population being deliberately starved by the cruel policies of our own government. We traveled to Cuba under the U.S. government-authorized category of providing humanitarian aid to the Cuban people. We brought desperately needed medicines and medical supplies at a time when Cuba is suffering catastrophic shortages caused by the crippling U.S. blockade.

We stayed in hotels explicitly permitted under U.S. regulations: Spanish-owned hotels approved for U.S. travelers. It is outrageous that the U.S. government would target people for bringing humanitarian aid to suffering Cuban children. But even more disturbing is the cruel and deeply immoral policy the United States continues to impose on Cuba — a policy designed to strangle the island economically, deprive people of food, fuel, medicine, and basic necessities, and make daily life unbearable.

This policy has contributed to catastrophic shortages of medicine and electricity, massive blackouts, transportation collapse, and a public health crisis that has hurt the most vulnerable, especially children and the elderly. It is a policy that is, literally, killing babies, as we have seen in the recent tragic doubling of the infant mortality rate. This is why we focused our donations on medical supplies for pediatric hospitals. In addition to the immense human suffering these U.S. policies are causing, we are now hearing reckless threats about an invasion of Cuba — a path that would bring chaos, violence, and a massive migration crisis. Year after year, the global community overwhelmingly condemns the U.S. blockade at the United Nations.

The United States should lift the blockade, normalize relations with Cuba, and allow the future of Cuba to be determined by the Cuban people themselves — not by ambitious U.S. politicians or a small group of hardline Cuban-American extremists in Miami. President Trump already has his hands full trying to disentangle himself from the disastrous U.S. war with Iran. He should not start another one in Cuba. The American people are tired of endless wars, interventions, sanctions, and suffering imposed in our name.

See all high resolution photos here.