Cuban uprising: the challenges of Diaspora politics
The Iranian, Cuban and Eastern European Diasporas have much in common because they face the same foes where they live
Cuba has seen its biggest protests in the 62-year rule of the Communist Party. When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, it was a significant triumph for enemies of Western Civilisation which has influenced world politics ever since. The protests have received, to nobody’s surprised, only moderate coverage in a Western media preoccupied with the latest virtue-signalling exercise (such as the latest woke meltdowns in the UK and Canada).
As someone who’s proudly been fighting battles against “progressive” ideologies for a long time, a fervent anti-Communist of Czech background and a staunch supporter of the struggle of the Iranian people, I cannot claim to be surprised by the indifference and ham-fisted reactions from the usual suspects regarding the Cuban protests. Because it doesn’t fit the narrative, and it also opens up a whole new can of worms.
I have always made a strong point of the shared experiences and challenges faced by Diaspora communities in the West - Eastern European, Iranian and Cuban diasporas who have remarkable similarities. Eastern European diaspora communities were formed as a result of Communism being imposed on their homelands after World War II. Consequently, these communities have often served as bastions of anti-Communism and ever more so against Leftist madness gripping liberal democracies and threatening our most basic freedoms. They have been joined by the Cuban Diaspora since 1959, and the Iranian Diaspora since 1979.
Not only did they actively oppose the totalitarian regimes in their homelands, but they also are faced with powerful apologists for the said regimes who are rampant in the Western Left today. Because we have the same enemies, it is impossible to see these historic and ongoing ideological struggles being apart. This creates the most perplexing situation that the staunchest defenders of the West’s freedoms and values come from these Diaspora communities in far greater proportion than “local” populations.
The Iranian Diaspora is also faced with the challenge of not only regime apologists in the political class, but also lobby groups claiming to represent Iranian community interests but in reality being front groups for the Islamic Republic regime such as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC makes a mockery of its 501 (c)(3) status as it is really a lobby group for the Islamic Republic regime and the elite that has prospered from collaboration with it. Additionally, another lobby group unrepresentative of Iranian community opinion has also gained friends in the political class - that of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which claims to be the leading opposition group but is in fact universally despised by Iranians who oppose the regime.
Also worth mentioning are the challenges faced by Greek, Armenian, Assyrian and Kurdish diaspora communities, who must confront an aggressive and influential Turkish lobby in Europe and the USA. This particularly concerns the genocide denialism which continues to be Turkish policy seeking to undermine recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides. Compounding this, many of those claiming to oppose racism and Islamophobia also deny these genocides.
Which, of course, is the same as how many on the Left continue to deny or downplay the atrocities of Communism (Russia of course whitewashes Soviet history). And this is why the heroic uprising of the Cuban people holds ever greater significance, and why the Cuban Diaspora as well as Cubans protesting in their own country are confronted with the appalling tendencies of Western progressives to provide cover for history’s most grotesque tyrannies.
This didn’t end when the Cold War ended. Communism never went away and we must continue to actively confront its insidious influence in our culture and society.