The following article by Bernard Regan, originally published in Labour Outlook, outlines the significance of the May Day celebrations in Cuba, in which “over one million Cubans demonstrate in Havana in the Plaza de la Revolución, led by the trade union movement”.
Bernard discusses the cruel economic blockade imposed on Cuba by the US, now being doubled down on by the Trump administration. Biden, a few days before leaving office, removed Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, only for the designation to be restored by Trump within 24 hours of entering the White House. Cuba’s ridiculous designation as a state sponsor of terrorism “is designed to cut Cuba off from any access to international banking agencies making it extremely difficult, if not impossible to trade, to obtain vital medicines, foodstuffs, materials and equipment critical to the functioning of the island’s economy from other countries worldwide”.
The article observes that China is working with Cuba to help reduce the island’s dependency on oil, with agreements in place to for Chinese companies to lead construction of around 100 photovoltaic farms. While China’s involvement in such projects is profit-generating, it “will not interfere in the internal politics of the countries it enters into trade agreements with” – in stark contrast to the US’s mode of doing business.
Indeed China is working with countries throughout Latin America on infrastructure projects that are helping them to break out of underdevelopment and enhance regional integration. Recognising the danger this poses to US hegemonic interests, the US is “now engaged in a war to exclude China from many markets” in the region.
The article concludes by calling on readers to raise their voices against the continued hostility towards Cuba and the relentless attacks on its sovereignty.
Bernard Regan is Secretary of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
May Day in Cuba is a national holiday marked by huge demonstrations across the country and this year will be no exception. Over one million Cubans will demonstrate in Havana in the Plaza de la Revolucion led by the trade union movement.
The event will be a positive reaffirmation of the values of the revolution and an expression of Cuba’s determination to resist the pressures of the blockade imposed on the island by successive United States administrations and most recently of course by President Donald Trump.
The blockade is imposed on Cuba despite the United Nations General Assembly voting 32 times consecutively to call for its complete removal. From 1st March 2023 to February 2024 the blockade caused material damages estimated at $5,056,800,000. Just 15 minutes without the blockade would enable Cuba to provide hearing aids for all the children who needed them; 30 minutes blockadeless and all the electrical and conventional wheelchairs needed could be provided. The list goes on and on. It is a totally unjustifiable persecution of the Cuban people.
In November 2024 the most recent vote recorded 187 countries against the blockade and only two (USA and Israel) voting for its continuance whilst one nation (Moldova) abstained. Despite this overwhelming vote Trump continues these vindictive policies. Far from having any negative impact on the world Cuba has displayed an exemplary record of sending medical support to countries across the globe in need of practical solidarity.
Since 1960, over 600,000 medical professionals have gone to over 160 countries to provide their expertise. In 2020 it was estimated that there were 30,000 Cuban doctors in 67 countries. Britain’s population is over 6 times that of Cuba. Just imagine if Britain had acted with such a selfless sense of solidarity for people across the globe, how many more millions of lives could have been saved and sick and injured treated.
Over the whole period of Cuba’s existence, it has not been possible to put a cigarette paper between the policies of Democrats or Republicans. Occasionally there have been changes of tack – as when President Obama established diplomatic relations with Cuba but did not remove the most vicious of the legislation that was imposed on the island.
Trump has never made a secret of his animosity towards Cuba or indeed for that matter towards any nation that asserts its sovereignty. In 2018 speaking at the United Nations General Assembly he said, “It has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe (1823) that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this (western) hemisphere and in our own affairs.” It was a clear declaration of intent that he wished to make the Latin American economies subservient to Wall Street’s interests.
On taking office on 20th January 2025 Trump placed Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) just 24 hours after his taking office. President Biden had taken Cuba off the list – but only a week before he was to cease being President. The appointment by Trump of Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State signalled the President’s clear intention to follow the vicious anti-Cuban policies of his co-Republican.
The SSOT status has been described by some as equivalent to an economic “death sentence”. It is designed to cut Cuba off from any access to international banking agencies making it extremely difficult, if not impossible to trade, to obtain vital medicines, foodstuffs, materials and equipment critical to the functioning of the island’s economy from other countries worldwide.
Cuba is trying to deal with this for example by reducing its dependency on oil to generate electricity. It has reached agreements with China, for example, to provide around 100 photovoltaic farms which are currently in the process of being installed. Whilst some hope that the BRICS group of countries might provide an alternative international currency to rival the almighty dollar that seems unlikely in the short-term and may indeed not come to fruition given the tariff war that the White House is unleashing which may indeed create divisions between China and India for example.
The USA’s tariff wars will continue. Trump is fearful of China’s influence in Latin America where some 20 countries have already joined the Belt and Road initiative, hence his obsession with the Panama Canal and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. However, the opening of the Chancay mega-port in Peru and the much talked about potential alternative of a Nicaraguan “Panama Canal” threaten Washington’s aspitrations for the region. Whilst China will undoubtedly pursue its own economic interests in a pragmatic manner, unlike the USA, it is almost certain, given its track record, that it will not interfere in the internal politics of the countries it enters into trade agreements with.
The tariffs that Washington has imposed on China are a clear indication of the economic war for domination of the continent that is taking place. Like Monroe before him the USA is now engaged in a war to exclude China from many markets across the globe but Latin America is an immediate concern. The continent holds invaluable resources of rare earth minerals as well as oil in abundance and Washington has already mobilised the Pentagon in this economic conflict. The current head of the United States Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor General Laura Richardson, in identifying the economic resources that the continent holds as being of strategic interest to the USA. On 14th January – just a week before Trump was inaugurated – the columnist Bret Stephens wrote in the New York Times a column calling for a USA military intervention to overthrow President Maduro in Venezuela.
The British government casts its vote against the inhuman blockade of Cuba but does nothing to challenge its punitive affects. The solidarity campaign with Cuba is as vital as it has ever been. Trump wants to create a unipolar world with Washington and Wall Street at its centre. Cuba demonstrates that another world is possible – one in which human life is valued and prioritised, in which people can live in dignity and at peace. It is those values which have led to Cuba standing alongside the people of Palestine against tyranny and oppression. Cuba does not stand alone but we must continue to raise our voices and encourage others to do so to end the unjustifiable assault against its sovereignty which continues to be inflicted on it by successive Presidents of the United States of America.
