Hands Off Cuba
This is a message from death row prisoner Kevin Cooper presented by prison phone to a forum July 2, 2026, in Berkeley, California, entitled “Cuba: Proud, Beleaguered, Undaunted. U.S.: hands off Nicaragua, Iran, Palestine, everywhere!” sponsored by Socialist Action.
Good evening. I’m Kevin Cooper speaking to you from this modern-day plantation in Stockton.
I greet all of you in true peace and unity and want our sisters and brothers from Cuba to know that I am in solidarity with you at this most important time in the history of your country.
There are many people across the world in situations like mine who, like me, are in complete support and solidarity with all oppressed people throughout the world, from Cuba to Venezuela, to Palestine and elsewhere
We African Americans, and other oppressed people here in this country can relate to your plight and all the suffering the Cuban people are enduring because of this U.S. government, who has to one degree or another done the same type of dehumanizing things to us as a people.
We understand your pain, your struggle, and your will not to be dehumanized.
We are after all, when all is said and done, sisters and brothers.
Whatever pains you, pains me, pains many of us. When you suffer, I suffer, and many of us also suffer.
When you smile, I smile, we smile, and when you are happy, I’m happy, we’re happy.
We are not free in this country called America, or on this planet we call earth if you’re not free in Cuba!
Your struggle is my struggle, is our struggle. Especially for your human rights and your right to self-determination.
Like all people, Cubans want to be the ones who determine their present and future, and not to be a stepchild or puppet, or colony of the U.S.A.
So, it’s self-determination today, self-determination tomorrow, and self-determination in the future. I can’t believe, as a human being, that the rest of the world does not know or want to know or care to know about the destruction that the government of this country has done and is doing to Cuba and other places and people throughout this world. I want to believe that if they knew they would do something about it, and until something is done about it, there will be no peace until “peace after revolution.”
In Struggle and Solidarity, Kevin Cooper
Write to Kevin Cooper at:
Kevin Cooper C65304
CHCF Unit E1C 101
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213-9040