The fight to end the brutal economic, trade and financial war against the Cuban people waged by the U.S. capitalist rulers and their government in Washington is deeply in the interests of workers and our unions. This punishing embargo is enforced in hopes of starving working people in Cuba into submission and overturning the first socialist revolution in the Americas — an example for those exploited and oppressed everywhere.
For more then six decades the U.S. rulers have inflicted severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines on Cuba, with the deliberate aim of maximizing everyday hardships. Their economic war prevents Cuba from importing machinery, spare parts and other goods and exporting what it produces to cripple the country’s economic development.
The Donald Trump administration placed, and Joe Biden’s administration continues, to keep Cuba on Washington’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” This imposes additional sanctions. These restrict foreign assistance, limit Cubans abroad from sending money to their families on the island and curb Cuba’s access to the international banking network.
These measures are the most wide-ranging sanctions ever imposed on Cuba, coming on top of the Helms-Burton Act signed by former President William Clinton in 1996. It allows U.S. citizens who claim a link to any company or property nationalized by the Cuban Revolution to sue to take control out of Cuba’s hands, as well as to stop businesses in other countries from maintaining trade with Cuba.
Against the will of the Cuban people, Washington has occupied Cuban territory at Guantánamo Bay for 120 years, a fundamental violation of the country’s sovereignty. It maintains a military base — and the notorious prison there.
Despite the intensification of the U.S. rulers’ economic war against Cuba, working people there refuse to yield. Arms in hand they repelled a U.S.-backed mercenary invasion at Playa Giron in 1961. They have staunchly resisted Washington’s embargo from the moment it was imposed more than 60 years ago.
Since then, every Democratic and Republican administration has enforced the embargo. Both parties serve the interests of the U.S. capitalist rulers. The same class that is waging an unrelenting assault on workers’ wages, working conditions and political rights at home, will never forgive working people in Cuba for overturning capitalist rule, and setting an example for working people everywhere.
Most importantly, working people here need to build a party to advance the same revolutionary course led by Fidel Castro and the Rebel Army in Cuba — to bring the working class to power. Forging a party to lead a socialist revolution in the U.S. is the road to bringing down the world’s final imperialist empire.
Help get out the truth about Cuba’s socialist revolution! Win fellow workers and your union to demand an immediate and unconditional end to Washington’s embargo. Take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism! Return Guantánamo to the Cuban people!