Working people should oppose every assault by Washington on the sovereign rights of other nations, regardless of the character of their governments, from the reactionary regime in Iran to the revolutionary government of Cuba.
The U.S. rulers’ blockade and threats against Cuba are different from their assaults anywhere else. Their decadeslong economic and political war and other attacks on Cuban sovereignty are aimed at overturning a socialist revolution. They have gone to unprecedented lengths, including the failed invasion by Cuban counterrevolutionaries at the Bay of Pigs in 1961; numerous assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the revolution’s central leader; brutal sanctions against Cuba; and their escalating threats of “regime change” today.
The Socialist Workers Party Call to Action — printed in the February 23 Militant and featured on our website today — explains that “workers in the United States have no interest in the rulers’ brutalization of a small nation and its people simply for exercising their sovereign right to make a socialist revolution to improve their conditions of life and work.”
The statement points out the U.S. rulers fear the “political and moral example and attraction among working people and the oppressed the world over of Cuba’s socialist revolution.”
Washington’s drive against Cuba is backed up by the liberal and conservative press. They lie about the root cause of the worsening conditions Cubans face today, saying not a word about Washington’s relentless efforts to try to economically strangle working people there. Instead they turn reality on its head, blaming the revolution itself and the Cuban government.
Under Washington’s blockade and bullying, no oil has reached Cuba for three months. A total electrical grid shut down hit the island March 16. Shortages of basic necessities of life are becoming more severe.
The Justice Department says it’s considering filing charges against Raúl Castro and other leaders of the revolution, in order to provide yet another pretext for U.S. military intervention.
Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean are bowing to Washington’s demands to expel Cuban medical workers who the U.S. government falsely claims are victims of “human trafficking.” This has ended much-appreciated health care programs, while also shutting down a valuable source of income for Cuba.
Driving home the goal of the U.S. imperialist rulers, President Donald Trump says his goal “may be a friendly takeover, it might not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn’t matter.”
Washington can’t stand the fact that working people in Cuba took their destiny into their own hands. They were led in their millions by Fidel Castro and the July 26 Movement to take political power. They mobilized to take the factories, fields, docks and banks from U.S. and Cuban capitalists. Tens of thousands of youth went into the countryside and the barrios to bring an end to illiteracy. The revolution expanded the participation of working people in all aspects of social and political life. Working people joined struggles against imperialist domination around the world. And they were transformed in the process. This is a socialist revolution to emulate.
In the U.S., workers have the opportunity and responsibility to take to the streets and speak out against Washington’s assaults and demand an immediate end to its blockade of Cuba. Actions demanding U.S. hands off Cuba! have been held in several cities.
More are urgently needed. Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with working people in Cuba in a common fight against the U.S. rulers’ unrelenting assaults on Cuban sovereignty. Defend the first socialist revolution in the Americas. U.S. hands off Cuba!