From Morning Star

Cuba Solidarity Campaign's survey on the attitude of British MPs to possible US military action against Cuba shows that there is no stomach for an invasion of the socialist island.

Of course, some of those surveyed remain wedded to the Pentagon and its fantasies, which is no surprise.

Tory MP Michael Mates, who poses as a defence specialist, makes the ridiculous and utterly unfounded statement that Cuba is of concern because it is 'an exporter of terrorism - mostly in the United States.'

His equally deluded colleague Owen Paterson believes in a 'free Cuba,' thinking it 'tragic that the Castro regime continues so long after the collapse of the Soviet Union.'

And Home Secretary David Blunkett, as well-informed as ever - as he has just proved by finally recognising the innocence of a man whom he locked up for three years without trial as a grave danger to security - was more concerned about 'where this rumour has started.'

He thought that the CSC idea of sending cards to MPs was 'not a helpful initiative.'

For the benefit of these gentlemen, especially the new Labour minister, the military threat to Cuba is not hypothetical.

It is the planned final act in a White House drama designed to sow discontent and disorder on the island by worsening economic conditions through a tightening of the economic blockade.

Havana has already been warned that any mass refugee flight from Cuba to the US would be regarded as a hostile act and treated accordingly.

And how best to encourage such a flight of economic migrants?

By reducing the amount that Cuban-Americans can send home to family members in remittances and by cutting back on the frequency of visits that they can make to their homeland.

These are simply the most recent measures introduced to try to strangle Cuban independence in a strategy that has 'regime change' at its heart.

Promotion of regime change in another country is, of course, illegal under international law, but Washington doesn't feel itself bound by such niceties any more than it has accepted restrictions on its 'right' to sponsor terrorism against Cuba and Cuban interests in third countries.

Cuba, Mr Mates, has been a victim of US terrorism not a perpetrator of terrorism in the US.

And why, Mr Paterson, do you think that Cuba has maintained its independence so long after the demise of the Soviet Union if it is not because a free and sovereign people have opted for resistance to imperialism rather than renewed subservience?

Despite the 44-year-old blockade, Cuba continues to develop and to provide material solidarity on a phenomenal scale to Latin American, African and Asian states.

Its record would be even better if Britain and other European states were to be frank with their US ally, especially since the virulently right-wing anti-Cuban Spanish leader Jose-Maria Aznar has bitten the dust.

They should tell the US president to drop military plans and challenge the illegal blockade by stepping up economic co-operation with Cuba.