A PETITION calling for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to Cuban medical workers combating coronavirus around the world has been launched by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC).

Initiated at an online meeting last night, the petition had attracted nearly 3,000 signatures as the Morning Star went to press.

“Thousands of Cuban doctors, nurses and technicians have responded to overseas requests for help by volunteering as part of the island’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade,” it declares.

“From Jamaica to Italy and Angola to Indonesia, more than 3,700 Cuban medics have supported health workers in 39 countries in their fight against Covid-19.”

The meeting heard Unite general secretary Len McCluskey discuss trade unionism and international solidarity with Miami Five hero Rene Gonzalez.

Mr McCluskey said he was proud of the work Unite had done to “break the silence” around the unjust imprisonment of the Five, who were jailed in the US for their work monitoring anti-Cuba terrorist groups in Florida.

He slammed the impact of the illegal US blockade on Cuba and the audacity of the US claiming Cuba was part of an “axis of evil,” saying: “The only axis of evil runs between the White House and Capitol Hill!”

Mr Gonzalez recalled the importance of receiving letters of solidarity from around the world while in prison and savaged the economic war by “the biggest power of the world against our tiny country.”

Cuban ambassador to Britain Barbara Montavo Alvarez thanked CSC for “having raised the blockade at the highest levels of government through your work with the trade unions” and Cuban trade union federation CTC general secretary Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento spoke of the links it had forged between British and Cuban unions.

The petition can be signed at https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/nobel-peace-prize/