For more than six decades, the U.S. capitalist rulers have tried by every means possible — from organizing the Bay of Pigs invasion to nuclear confrontation to terrorist bombings to an over 60-year-long, ever-tightening economic embargo — to try to overthrow the socialist revolution made by workers and farmers in Cuba. Washington wants to crush revolutionary Cuba’s example in Latin America, around the world and in the U.S.
Millions of Cuban working people, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, were transformed as they changed which class wielded power in 1959. They defended their revolution arms in hand against Washington’s aggression.
The embargo, pursued by every U.S. administration — Democrat and Republican alike — has had a devastating impact on Cuba’s working people. Cuba suffered four island-wide blackouts Oct. 17-20 as the aging Cuban electrical grid, deprived of spare parts and oil, repeatedly collapsed. Millions of Cubans were left without power for several days. The outages came as parts of the island faced destructive winds from Hurricane Oscar.
Cuba offers aid to toilers worldwide whenever calamity strikes, from Ebola in Africa to COVID in Italy, while the rulers in Washington gloat at the crises the Cuban people face.
The U.S. rulers’ long financial and trade embargo has been exacerbated by extra sanctions inflicted in the name of Washington’s outrageous designation of Cuba as a “sponsor of terrorism.” These have deepened the power shortages and other crises confronting the Cuban people.
The centerpiece of the U.S. rulers’ relentless war is the “economic, commercial and financial blockade” of the island, Cuba’s minister of foreign affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, told the U.N. Sept. 28. It is meant, he said, to “cut off the country’s financial revenues; bring about the collapse of the economy and create a situation of political and social instability.”
The damage caused by Washington’s economic warfare “has an impact on the life of all Cubans,” Rodríguez told the U.N. Estimated losses to Cuba totaled over $5 billion last year.
The U.S. rulers’ sweeping embargo imposes countless obstacles to Cuba’s ability to purchase foodstuffs, medical supplies and equipment worldwide. International banks, fearing reprisals from Washington, refuse the most elementary banking services.
The labor movement needs to draw on the example of the California State AFL-CIO, whose July convention overwhelmingly passed a motion protesting the Biden administration’s “inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
Unionists on the front lines of today’s struggles have a great deal to learn from the rich example of how millions under the leadership of Fidel Castro carried through their socialist revolution in Cuba. The Socialist Workers Party demands that Washington lift its cruel embargo of Cuba, take Havana off the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list and end its interference in Cuba’s internal affairs.