Hundreds of thousands marched and rallied in Havana, above, May 1, International Workers’ Day, under the slogan “The Homeland must be defended.” Led by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), Cuba’s trade union federation, huge crowds of unionists, students and members of Cuba’s armed forces also took to the streets in provincial capitals and towns across the island to condemn Washington’s escalating aggression against the Cuban people and their socialist revolution.
Leading up to the annual celebration, over 6 million Cubans over the age of 16 — out of a total population of 9.7 million — signed a petition reaffirming their commitment to defend the country’s sovereignty, and condemning Washington’s stifling oil blockade and threats of military attack.
The same day, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order imposing more sanctions, targeting — in Washington’s language — “entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations, or are agents, officials, or material supporters of the Cuban government.”
At an event in Florida later that day, Trump said with imperialist arrogance that “we” will take over Cuba “almost immediately.” On the way back from Iran, “we’ll have one of our big aircraft carriers come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, thank you very much, we give up.”
“Our enemies have tried everything” against us, CTC leader Osnay Miguel Colina said at the Havana event. “They thought we’d be suffocated, defeated; yet here we are, committed and strong, with our foot in the stirrup, still fighting.”
“Cuba, a defiant island, continues to stand as a moral beacon,” said Colina. “Our greatest weapon is not a missile, it’s a consciousness, the conviction that a better world is possible.”